Aliquam Orbis
by Howling Din
Summary: Joy is abducted in the dead of night and replaced in Headquarters by an impostor. The real Joy awakens in the Thought Foundry; a multileveled facility the escape from which proves difficult on account of the Workers not knowing who she is, and by the facility's own problems weighing on her conscious.
1. Along Comes a Spider

The memory, the round, glass-like sphere in Joy's hand, was not any color she'd seen before. Memories which had formed through her affect on the mind were a golden yellow. Those produced by Sadness, a deep blue. Anger painted memories as a saturated red, Disgust made them green, and Fear made them violet.

Riley, the whole person of whom Joy, and the other four emotions were a part, also recently began recording mixed memories; memories which carried more than one emotion, resulting in striped and dotted memory orbs with more than one color.

But this memory, which Joy had spotted and picked from the racks which stored today's new memories, was not any of their colors. It was not grey either, a color which would signify it as objective knowledge detached from emotion.

It was orange. A dark, rich orange, which one could gain a glimpse of in the physical world by staring through orange-stained glass at a raging bonfire in a moonless night. This was the color of the memory Joy had found. Her own memories sometimes dipped to a dark shade which resembled an orange, but it came nowhere close to this orb.

The memory itself was blank. It showed her nothing. When fast-forwarding and rewinding it, it remained blank. In all her experience with memories, she'd never seen one with no visual or audio.

As she stood in place examining it, something occupied the lower corner of her vision. She turned, and saw Sadness, standing uncomfortably close and looking at the same thing. Sadness had a habit of walking up to people quietly, without saying a word. It could sometimes be startling, but Joy never let it get to her. She looked down at Sadness, making eye contact.

Sadness was considerably shorter than Joy, and had a plump face with wide, round glasses. She had been staring at the orange memory, her mouth slightly ajar to reveal her top teeth, which showed that she was slightly awestruck. Now she was looking up at Joy.

Joy took a step back from her, making their distance from one another a more comfortable one. "Have any idea where this might have come from?" She asked, holding out the orange memory in one hand.

Sadness merely shook her head at this. "Um," she composed her mouth shut. "I came over here to ask... Riley's about to fall asleep now, and... ah... who do you want on dream duty?"

"You're pretty well-read on the mind manuals, Sadness." Joy said, pleasantly ignoring Sadness' excuse for being curious about what she was doing. "Is there a chance of there being some kind of... defective memory?"

She tilted her head, "Ah... defect? What do you mean-"

"You know," Joy said quickly, walking around and past Sadness in the direction of the control console, with Sadness following close behind. "A runt, a fifth wheel, the target of all forms of quality control."

"Not... not that I know of."

"I've got dream duty." Joy announced to the other emotions next to the console, as she pressed the foot button next to the deposit shaft, causing the wide, transparent air tube to connect with the protrusion in the floor. This caused all memory orbs created during the day to roll into tunnels under the floor like a marble maze, all converging at the air tube, where they were sucked upward into the ceiling.

Anger, the shortest of the emotions, was looking at the orange memory in Joy's hand. "What'cha got there, boss?"

She looked at it again, holding it aloft. "I'm hanging onto this. I've never seen its color, so I'm a bit hesitant about sending it down to long-term."

"Suit yourself," he shrugged as he walked past, in the direction of the ramp which led up into the upper tier, where the Emotions' sleeping quarters were located.

Joy watched them leave, and turned her head back to see Sadness still next to her, touching the orange orb. The touch of Sadness' blue hand did not effect the orb.

"Thanks for trying." Joy said to her. "But I don't think It's going to be as simple as that."

Sadness retreated her hand and shrank down diminutively. "Sorry..."

"No harm done." She said lightly as she patted Sadness' back in the direction of the rampway, where Anger was already heading. "Head on up to bed, now. I'm sure I can sort this out before morning."

The skinny, crescent-shaped Fear was the next to pass by. "You have to be sure about something like this, Joy. That thing might not even be a memory." he was matching his fingers together with spastic anxiety, darting his gaze left and right.

Disgust was also observing it. "Yeah Joy," she said in her usual tween accent. She was staring at her own self-displayed fingernails with a look of feigned aloofness. "You remember, right? What happened the last time you thought you could take care of everything on your own? It wasn't long ago."

"Yep!" Joy answered to both of them, not any less chipper. The air tube had finished taking today's memories, and withdrew into the ceiling. The lights in headquarters had dimmed and shut off to a more comfortably dark atmosphere that matched the mental night sky outside. "I'm thinking that's the case right now, too. I can handle this myself." She went over to the control console, and pulled up a chair to it.

Fear's attention was still on her and the orb. "I think what Disgust meant is learning from your-"

"Forget it, Fear." Disgust pulled him along, in the direction of the sleeping quarters walkway. He went along.

Fear was still openly displaying his paranoia as he went along. "I just get... jumpy. It's this little thing called pattern recognition. And I'm recognizing a pattern."

"That... incident," Disgust said. "It really didn't displace Joy, at all, from what she feels is her role in Riley's mind." They were heading up the walkway with Sadness seen just entering the quarters.

"But she let Sadness come in and do her thing without interruption."

"Yeah, that's right." Disgust said. "She made a flawed decision, realized what was wrong with it, and acted to amend it. And the entire time she was still driving events. And she's still driving right now. If anything, what happened reinforced what she is, and what she thinks she is, as much as it did for Sadness."

Fear looked down at Joy on the main floor. She was pacing in front of the console and not yet sitting down, out of earshot of their conversation. He then looked back at Disgust. "You're a lot smarter than you look."

Disgust frowned, looked down at herself in appraisal, then snapped her vision up at Fear. "And... what's wrong with the way I look?"

"Oh! I didn't mean-"

She let out an aggravated sigh, turning and walking away as she waved a hand at him in an act of snubbing.

Joy was left alone on the main floor of headquarters. The large, cinema-like screen in front of the console normally displayed what Riley saw, and heard, as well as all other input given by the five senses. But when she slept, it displayed her dreams.

She was now alone at the console. It had recently been given a sizeable expansion, with a greater number of buttons, switches and levers. It was now broad enough that all five emotions had a spot, and could operate it in a potentially simultaneous order. This led to a broader scope by which Riley could experience things, as well as memories with greater depth and complexity.

Yet still only five core emotions. Joy stood at the console, watching tonight's dream open. She then looked at the eerily colored memory, still in her hand. The curiosity of it grabbed her attention, and she sat down, half-listening to the dream. _"You skate like it's been something for you since age, like, one."_ The dream's audio said this in a surreal, echoed voice.

Joy got up and headed for the small plateau which the air shaft normally junctioned to. She raised the orange orb, treating it like a normal memory being put on display.

" _It's pretty normal in Minnesota..."_ Riley's own, somewhat shy voice could be heard. The orb floated into position as a beam projector shot out of the floor behind, firing its light through the orb and projecting it on screen. The projection canceled out the dream, displaying a recollection of the memory in its place.

And it did show something. But it was not anything Riley had percieved in her outward senses at any point in the day.

Smoke, dark and thick. It cleared to reveal silhouettes of an equally dismal shade. But the silhouettes moved, in a predictable pattern and consistency. They were never stopped from this motion, never hindered, never altered or modified. More of them entered the scope as it panned away, and they became clear. The silhouettes were machinery. Gears and cables and belts. Hammers and wheels and belts and reels.

It looked like something straight from the inside of the mind. None of the mind's inner workings registered in Riley's outward senses. The inner workings of the mind never caused any of the emotions to become invested enough to make it a direct experience. This made the existence of this memory all the more an enigma.

There was a red light, labeled "Puberty" on the far right side of the console. It began blinking.

The projecton vanished.

Joy turned around, and saw the memory being taken from the projection spot. And saw what was taking it, in the dim lighting of Headquarters, becoming darker by the memory no longer being projected. No dream came to take its place, meaning Riley had become at least half-awake.

Joy witnessed a long, extended arm gripping the orb. It was part of a dark body that attached itself to the ceiling, from which an unnatural number of additional limbs protruded, gripping the ceiling and keeping it there. In spite of the length of its appendages, it was not very big overall, being no larger in volume than Joy herself.

She immediately ran up to the memory and leaped, grabbing the orb. It was trying to steal it, and thus was her first reaction.

The multi-limbed entity fell off the ceiling from Joy's weight pulling down, and landed on the floor. Joy's hands were still gripped on the memory, as was the multi-limbed Entity's single extended hand. It got up on its many feet, moving away from Joy like an insect as it pulled the orange memory away. It headed for the windows of Headquarters, on the other end from the viewing screen.

Joy got her footing, and then yanked it back. This pulled it off its feet and she continued trying to detach its grip off the memory by swinging its now airborne form to the side.

Its grip finally broke as it flew across the room. It landed on the control console in a mess of thin, tangled limbs. Joy took several steps back, memory in hand as it regained its insect-like footing. It turned to face Joy, revealing a pair of bright, white oval eyes. Its color was dark grey. It darted at her, at the memory.

Joy looked left and right, and saw a train of thought outside, in motion on account of Riley now being awake. Not wishing to contend with the spider-like entity, she ran toward the dock which would open as the train stopped at Headquarters. Hearing the spider-like entity bearing down behind her, she stopped next to the door just as it was opening for the train. And then she tossed the orange memory through the door, landing it in the train car beyond, in a crate loaded with mental content.

Joy stepped aside and saw the entity and its many darting legs head straight for the orb on the train, ignoring her. She had no control over the door, and hoped it'd close before it came back in.

Its oval-eyed head peeked back into Headquarters. "No!" She shouted as she walked into its line of sight. "Shoo! Get out of here! You have what you came for. Leave!"

It crooked its head a bit, and reached a long appendage into headquarters, in her direction. The arm was long and weak, and she swatted it down with a minimum of effort. "Come on!" She said haplessly. "You have to leave now."

The light, on the control panel far to Joy's right, was still blinking. And now it brighened, and remained lit. It flashed brightly, to the point of illuminating all of Headquarters. Joy was suddenly hit with dizziness, and an abundance of energy. She suddenly wanted to run a mile, and then another mile while being weighed down.

The hand, which Joy had swatted down, jumped back up and grabbed her wrist. It suddenly had become much stronger. Her own sudden overabundance of energy was rendered moot by it lifting her in the air, where there was no leverage. It dragged her out the door, into the train of thought.

* * *

Riley, a young girl late in the age of twelve, had awoken in the midst of a fascinating dream. She could not grasp what exactly it meant, or of what it was a recollection of, but it was important. Of that she was certain. She knew it was important.

And what she had just done. What she had just done... had made her sit up. It was done in a state of half-sleep, and to her it was an enigma. All of what she had learned from her parents and her experiences and the more objective knowledge offered by school provided no explanation for the undeniable and absolutely true feeling she felt in her senses.

* * *

Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness had awoken. And when they did they were met with Joy at the control panel. But she looked different. She had a decidedly darker color, which leaned away from yellow in its golden hue and more toward orange. Her hair was no longer blue, but green.

"Okay, who are you and why do you look like Joy?" Disgust said.

"I am Joy." She said naturally. "I just... some things happened last night. It's no big deal." She turned back to the controls before they could reply. "Riley's awake now guys. It's time to do our job.

They left it at that. It was not the Emotions' nature to be confrontational or difficult. And they had no reason to believe anybody could enter or exit Headquarters without their knowing. It had to be Joy. She was simply going through something.

* * *

The real Joy awoke on a hard surface. She got up, and found she was surrounded by metallic structure. The sky was visible above through a long shaft to the top. And all around were storied platforms, in the shadows of which the glow of furnaces and fires could be seen. The place was swarming with mind workers, who carried out their tasks indifferently. One of them went slightly around her passing her by, pushing a wheeled cart.

"Okay..." she said under her own breath, ever agreeable and accepting of whatever situation arose. "This gives me deja-vu..." Except this time Sadness was not with her. "I'll have to find out where this is, and how I got here." There were stairways under and above the storied platforms surrounding the deep shaft, at the bottom of which she stood. Moving, visible protrusions from machinery in the upper floors imposed their shadows into the light beaming down from above.

She got moving. There were manuals in headquarters which detailed all of the workings of Riley's mind, but she had a bad habit of not studying them, and quickly forgetting whatever she did research in given situations. Joy needed to find a map, or someone who could point her in the right direction **.**


	2. Thought Foundry

" _B-199"_

This was the label, written on the directory next to the stairwell which Joy had found on the bottom floor underneath the next floor above. The ceiling was a good distance up, leaving a lot of open air. Most light came from the shaft in the center of the arrangement. The rest came from furnaces, sparsely arranged in the dark underneath the platform.

It was daylight above, signifying that Riley was awake. Joy figured she must have spent all night at the bottom of the shaft. She went up the steps, to the next floor above.

The next floor up had a smooth metal floor, as opposed to the blasted and picked away stone surface on the ground floor. _"B-198"_ Was the floor signified by the sign near the top of the stairway. They were basement levels, signified by that the number went up the further the floors went down, and down the further one went up. This confirmed to Joy that she was underground, and not in a very tall building.

The new floor was significantly more packed than the ground one. There was a mild crowd of Mind Workers who all had somewhere to go. Huge, stationary machines were arrayed about the open floor, with sparsely spaced support collumns going up to the next platform above.

There was no higher set of steps near the one Joy had just come up, and so she scanned the surrounding floor, looking for another upgoing flight of stairs. She hoped to find some kind of lift, as the floor directory claimed she was almost two hundred floors down.

Pounding and grinding could be heard all around. This noise enveloped the entire floor, as well as the shaft dominating the center of the donut-shaped stack of floors, the collective sound of every floor all around formed a constant, merciless din of noise. Some poundings and clankings maintained a reliable rhythm.

"Are you lost?"

Joy stopped from walking aimlessly, and turned to the source of the voice. It was a mind worker, wearing a hard hat and considerably shorter than her. "Excuse me?"

"You don't loook like you belong here. I'm asking if you got lost." He looked left, and right, at their surroundings. "Extremely lost."

She shrugged. "I don't even know where, or what this place is."

"Yes then." He moved along. "Come with me. I'll take you to see the Foreman."

She followed. "Thank you," she said in relieved exhale. "I really need to find a way out of here."

"What are you supposed to be, anyway? You look too humanoid to be one of those things from the tunnels."

"I'm Joy," she said. "What things from the tunnels? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the reason we've had to gate off every last tunnel entrance, and gas entire sections before we go mining for go-juice. As if there isn't enough on our plate with the new school grade."

Joy was nodding at this. "Boy I hear you... Still, there are a lot of things to enjoy in school." They passed by a conveyor belt. It conveyed chunks of hard sediment through a long line of hydraulic hammers which broke them apart. It then went uphill until reaching the next floor up.

"This is the biggest content processing center south of Headquarters; referred to as the Thought Foundry. It started as a go-juice mine. Then we moved the refining and processing machinery down here to save on shipping costs, and also because the people in Headquarters thought our facilities were an eyesore up top."

Joy's perspective in this was whenever Riley had to think about things, or get used to something new which she had no experience doing. When this happened she and the other emotions would order thoughts. Conclusions and pieces of perspective to serve as comforting answers to whatever Riley was faced with. Rationalizing the world around her with an interpretation that fit with the sense of life maintained by her mind. Joy knew what the Thought Foundry was, and what it did, but she'd never seen it in person. "So does this place handle things when Riley does schoolwork, too?"

"Oh, definitely." The mind worker said as they walked along the floor. There were hundreds of other workers in Joy's view, who did their jobs with an indifferent efficiency. "Math equations, critical thinking. There's much more to being human than how you feel about things."

Joy looked to the left, and observed a casting mold. Its molten material took a long, circuitous route through seesaw channels and a marble madness setup before reaching the mold itself. "It looks like a lot of things could be more efficient."

"Oh absolutely. Riley is only twelve, you know. The power plant, to the northwest of here is still using steam cylinders, when everyone and their cat knows that turbines are the way to go."

"How do things like that exist in the mind anyway?" Joy asked as they continued walking. They were headed toward a narrow elevator shaft. "I mean, what was it like in the minds of people who lived before those things were invented?"

The Mind Worker shrugged. "All I know is, anything Riley percieves in real life has the potential to exist in her mind. She knows that power plants, factories and mechanized transportation exists in real life, and therefore it can exist here. And honestly why shouldn't it? It makes our job so much easier."

"That would suggest..." Joy trailed off, "that knowing about those things gives her a mental edge over people who lived in the past, whom did not know about them. How does that make any sense?"

"Humans are beings of knowledge." The Mind Worker answered. "The only thing that makes Riley different from her distant primitive ancestors is the knowledge and culture which the world she was born into has given her. And she is different from her ancestors. Much different. As are all children born into similar conditions. Therefore it stands to reason that her mind function in a different way."

"Okay," Joy shrugged. "As long as Riley is happy, the innards of her mind can be a cyberpunk urban jungle for all I care."

They reached the elevator. It was olde-timey in appearance, with an open cab whose lattice gate was opened and shut by hand. They boarded it, and the mind worker used a manual set of controls to unlock it from position and let it be pulled upward. There were no enclosed walls to the cab or shaft, and Joy saw the floor shrink as they went up. The open floor looked like a mouse maze of conveyors from her high altitude, with swarms of colored dots all moving about. Some pushing trollys loaded with peach-colored stone.

"This elevator goes straight to the Foreman's office." The mind worker said. "You can sort your predicament out with him. I'm heading back down and straight back to work as soon as you're off the cab."

Joy looked his way, nodding in understanding. "Thanks," she said.

The elevator entered the ceiling above, becoming dark save for a single bulb at the top of the cab's metal skeleton. It reached the top of its elevator shaft, with the gate side emerging to a well-lit interior room. The gate was opened for Joy as she walked out. Then it shut behind her, and the elevator headed down.

* * *

It was a free period in school. In which students were free to do as they wanted, as long as they did not leave their seats. Riley used this time to catch up on schoolwork.

"Ugh!" Riley's Disgust exclaimed inside Heaquarters. "Is there any way we could skip this? I was against doing it when it was assigned, and I'm against it now."

"What's even the point of it?" Anger added. "It's just boring useless junk we're gonna forget about in a few days."

"And the school year has only just started..." Sadness' face was buried on the console. "There will be more to come, and it's gonna pile up, and it will all end in catastrophic failure."

"We can't let that happen, can we..?" Fear said. "We should just bite the bullet and get it finished. I don't want anybody getting upset with us." The other three emotions groaned and growled at this.

"Oh come now! What's this I'm hearing?" The green-haired, dimly colored Joy said, addressing all of them from the center of the console. "It could be worse, and if we start now, and don't stop, it won't take long."

The other emotions took this in, working past their unique inhibitions. Even after the incident a year ago, they still trusted her judgement. The incident largely largely due to her arrogance, but she was also the one who found the solution.

"Who's on 'Team: Get the work done'?" Said Dim Joy.

They all quietly agreed. "I'll wire the data down to the Thought Foundry." Dim Joy continued. "Then, when they send up refined thoughts, we'll sort through them and see which fit."

* * *

Joy entered the Foreman's office tentatively. There were long consoles and terminal workers operating every seat. Short stairways to the left and right led to a slightly elevated area. Everyone was too occupied to notice her.

The office was rectangular-shaped, and three of the four walls were angled glass that overlooked the many floors of the Foundry from a high location in the central shaft. Joy saw this clearly when she went up the steps, onto the elevated area of floor in the center of the office, which was really more of a control room.

"Orders coming in from HQ!" A loud voice announced in echo through the room. The speaker was standing in front of a console in the center of the elevated platform. He did not notice Joy. The console was a 3-dimensional cylinder running from the floor up through the ceiling. An opening at eye level revealed strips of color running through multiple narrow channels from top to bottom. There were four colors, including white which signified empty space. The colors running by were code, and their order and frequency signified the function and nature of the thought running through the channel.

"Okay," the worker at the central console said. "It says that Riley needs to build an essay. Preferably with accurate language, if we can manage it."

One of the terminal operators poked their head up, looking at the worker at the central console. "What do we send 'em, Foreman?"

The Foreman Waved off a hand dismissively. "Eh, send up a sequence of Echo-Tens, Charlie-Threes, and Golf-One-Eights. We've plenty in stock and it seemed to satisfy them last time."

It bothered Joy that the processed thoughts he decided to send seemed to roll right off the front of his mind, decided immediately without any deliberation. "Ah... excuse me."

"Who the heck are you?" The Foreman asked.

"I'm Joy." She announced joyfully. "I was wondering if-"

"That's impossible. You're either a lookalike or someone pulling some prank."

She crooked her head a bit. "Excuse me..?"

"The order from HQ came from Joy, just a few seconds ago." He indicated his console. "This code explicitly states it came from Joy. So unless you can be in two places at once, there's no way you're her."

She waved this down. "Look, I'm not all that concerned about who you think or don't think I am. I just need to find a way out of here."

The Foreman, now looking Joy in the face, crooked an eyebrow. "If, bychance you are the real Joy, then perhaps you'd be willing to prove it."

"Nope!" She replied. "I just want to get out of here. If you could point me in the right direction..." She had a plan. As soon as she was on the surface, she would make her way to a Train station. Riley's mind was stable, so the Train of Thought would be safe to take back to Headquarters.

The Foreman shook his head. "I'm afraid that's undoable. Nobody who isn't a mind worker is allowed up to surface. And whoever you are, you're definitely not a worker." The Foreman, like any mind worker, was a jellybean-like body-head compound with thin, black arms and legs. In his particular case he was a bit bigger than average, and a more reddish color.

Joy averted getting angry. Averted getting upset. Averted becoming complaintitive. "Please, I need to get out of here. I don't know how I ended up here, and I need to leave."

"Sorry," he shrugged. "But if you're not a mind worker, you can't use the transit system out of here. You shouldn't have even been able to get in here to begin with. So normally an issue like this doesn't come up. But rules are rules. If HQ lifts the restriction I can let you leave, but until then..."

Joy was an emotion, and so was practically immortal inside Riley's mind. She would certainly have survived having been dropped into the shaft, which was likely the case. However, despite not being able to die, she could become trapped or imprisoned.

"If there's nothing else, I've got a thought foundry to run." He turned to his console.

* * *

The free period in school had ended, and Riley hardly got anything done. She told herself she'd have plenty of time to finish it at home. School was almost out for that day, and she couldn't wait for it to end.

She'd occupied her thoughts with daydreams, and pleasant memories. Working on her essay simply did not stick, and on her paper lay a grand total of five and a half sentences.

* * *

"Not exactly 'Team: Get the work done' right now, is it, Joy?" Disgust said dejectedly, feeling dejected at their not making real progress at their essay.

"All those bums in the Foundry sent us were the same three processed thoughts, again!" Anger said, looking at an info screen which was separate from the one displaying Riley's immediate perceptions. "Not to mention the teacher could have given us a more interesting topic. I blame her most of all."

Sadness was the next to speak, "it dipped way below the boredom event horizon." She was analyzing the particular data which she was keen to. "Riley has already done something like this before."

"Guys!" Dim Joy said joyfully. "It's not near as bad as you're making it out to be. We have plenty of time to finish it at home.

Fear was chewing his nails. "But then she'll want to hang out with her friends, and do any other not-boring thing other than this essay, and it'll be left to stagnate until it's too late!" He said this in an elevating voice. "I knew this would happen!"

"And in spite of all of that, Riley is going to be happy." Dim Joy said. She turned, and indicated the short-term memory rack. "Do you see the huge tufts of my memories that were made last night?"

There indeed were huge areas of only Joyful memories. The other emotions acknowledged this.

"Those memories are undeniably positive, right?" She said. "And we can make as much as we want, whenever we're alone."

"I guess so..." Sadness was holding a slack elbow with her other hand.

Disgust was also looking away. "If feels... dirty though, in an odd way."

"Oh," Dim Joy dismissed it all. "Don't be like that you guys. Positive is positive. It's important to have balance and all, but... Riley is going through change. The parents and teachers all say that these are transitional years. We have it in our power to make it as painless as possible.

There was a hard, ultimately relaxed sigh. "She's right you guys," said Anger. "We can't stop Riley from going through change. And it doesn't end well when we try."

* * *

Processed thoughts had been issued, and were visible through the angled window walls of the control room. A huge air tube came down into the foundry shaft as smooth, wide conveyors were extended out into the open air, crossing to the other side of the platforms' donut-shaped arrangement.

The processed thoughts, shaped, colored and fragmented pieces, were moved along the wide conveyors. When they came under the air tube, it sucked them up. When it withdrew a satisfactory number, the conveyor receded back into its floor to allow the tube to sink lower, to lower conveyors with different varieties of processed thoughts.

Joy, still in the control room after this process completed, had been scanning the terminals. One particular one she spotted operated trams that moved from the surface to the foundry, signified by a simplified wireframe map. She turned back to the Foreman. There would only be one chance at this. "I... actually am a mind worker." She said.

"That so?" The Foreman said indifferently.

"Yes!" She said with a cocksure, positive energy. "You said yourself that I'm not an emotion. What else would I be?"

His interest was piqued once again, and he gave her a sideways glance. "What kind of job do you do?"

"I, ah..." She thought quickly. "I'm an irregular! I was transferred here to... help deal with the infestation in the go-juice mines."

The Foreman looked pleasantly surprised at this. "That's great. But if that's the case, why did you go claiming to be Joy of all people."

She scratched behind her head. "That was just..."

"It's not like you were fooling anyone," he continued, on the verge of laughter. "There's no way you could be Joy." he pointed at her with an opened hand. "You're not near tall enough!" he looked left and right, at the terminal operators who were drifting a curious look at the scene he was making. "Everyone, this scrawny girl claimed, I kid you not, to be none other than Joy!"

The control room erupted with chuckling. Joy had sagged forward, staring blankly. She absentmindedly blew a piece of hair off her face. "Yeah... you know us irregulars. We're a weird bunch."

"Uh huh," the Foreman agreed. "Not any less weird than the other ones who showed up here."

"Other ones?"

"Yeah, same job as you. I think you'll want to go find them, right?"

"Yes! Definitely." Joy answered.

"They're on level B-One oh one."

"Okay." she turned to leave. If she could keep up her story of being a mind worker, she could get out of the Foundry at the first opportunity.

"Oh! I almost forgot."

Joy stopped, and turned back to look at the Foreman. "What is it?"

"I want to wish you luck. You and the other ones deal with our infestation for good, and the go-juice shortage will vanish."

Joy was lying about being a mind worker, but nevertheless she gave a thumbs up, still half-turned in his direction. "You can count on me." She proceeded to enter the elevator and leave.

After Joy left, the Foreman turned to his console. He switched on a small comm screen, on the other end of which was Dim Joy. "It'a just like you said, Joy. Some bum waltzed in here claiming to be you. Looked just like you, too."

"Well done, Foreman." Dim Joy replied. "You know your task. She is not to escape from the Foundry.

"Not to worry, Joy." He was saluting. "The impostor took up an impossible assignment. To prove she's a legit worker she'll have to pull it off. And when she doesn't, she can't possibly expect to leave."

She nodded. "This is satisfactory. I expect your next report on her progress in eight hours." The transmission ended.

* * *

Dim Joy cut the connection. It was done on a terminal out of the view of the other emotions. "Sorry, Joy." She said to herself. "But you're not going to ruin it." She walked, touring past the concentrated clusters of joyous memories. She stopped to pick one up, staring at it lovingly. "You're not going to ruin the glorious new discovery." She stared into the memory's contents. "The discovery of me; the discovery of my method of making Riley Happy.


	3. The Irregulars

Joy made her way to Floor B-101. The elevator from the control room had stopping points every ten floors. She stopped it at B-100, after which only one flight of steps down took her to B-101. Once there, she asked around for where there were irregulars. And she was pointed in one general direction along the donut-shape of the platform.

This floor was much higher up than the ones near the bottom. The differences were negligible. There was still an abundance of conveyors, processors and furnaces. It was afternoon, and school was out, meaning the activity had died down to a more relaxed pace.

Joy knew what irregular mind workers looked like, in that they always looked dramatically different from the ordinary. This was what allowed her to pass herself off as one. And how she would recognize the irregulars when she saw them.

A couple minutes of walking, and she spotted them. A rare expanse of open floor, near to the rock wall that surrounded the entire vertical shaft of the Foundry. There were three of them. They were gathered around a large, bulky vehicle on treads. It looked like a tank, but without the turret section.

As Joy approached, one of them noticed her, then the rest. They said nothing as she walked up to them and stopped near them. They were the same general color as Mind Workers, but with thicker, more humanoid limbs more typical of an emotion. These were the irregulars, she had no doubt.

"Um, hello." She said lightly. "You're the irregulars, I take it?" She wanted to say something; break the ice and get a conversation going.

One of them, with a feminine appearance, looked at the other two, then stepped forward and extended a hand. "Afternoon ma'am. I'm Lambda," she said with a slightly forced tone of politeness.

Joy's nervousness vanished. A handshake was definitely a language she understood. She took her hand and shook it up and down energetically. "My name is-" She stopped herself, realizing she couldn't call herself Joy.

Lambda pulled her hand away, and after a short pause, indicated the two others next to the vehicle behind her. "These are Iota," A tall, skinny one to the right of her nodded, waving lightly at the introduction of his name. "And Gamma," to her left was a worker of average height and build, whose head was concealed under goggles and a leather pilot hat. Lambda turned back to Joy. "Now, is there something we can help you with?"

"I... am an irregular as well." She said easily, lying with the same ease at which she always put up a positive face. "They sent me here as backup."

"Really." Lambda was appraising her from bottom to top. "You definitely don't look like a normal worker."

Joy had to come up with a name for herself. One that wasn't taken by the others. "I'm... Sigma. I was sent from a far-off sector."

"I see." Lambda said, taking a deep breath and letting her arms drop. "I suppose an extra pair of hands wouldn't hurt. Welcome to the squad."

"Great." Joy announced, her hands now clasped behind her back as she rocked back and forth on her feet. "What are my orders?"

Joy was immediately presented with a spray bottle and hand towel by the tall, skinny Iota. She accepted them.

"Your first assignment is to clean the APC." Lambda said. "We're deploying into the caves tonight, and I want her to shine like chrome, feel me?"

Joy looked at the spray bottle and rag in her hands, then at the vehicle. "I guess so. What are we doing tonight?"

Lambda and Gamma turned and left, picking up apparently empty metal cans and taking them with them. Then Iota walked up to Joy, holding an open binder. He read from it: "The entire cave system around the Foundry is overrun with D-Tractors. An infestation of Category Ones, and the occasional Category Two. This is severely hindering any attempt at energy mining by the Foundry's crew. Our job is to enter the tunnel network, locate the source of the D-Tractors, and then neutralize it if possible."

Joy was nodding at this. "Without an abundance of go-juice, Riley will become unmotivated."

Iota shut the binder, adjusting his spectacles. "Our primary objective tonight is reconnaissance. Neutralizing the source is secondary, if we can do so at minimal risk."

"Right then." Joy was mentally sucking her gut in. She walked past Iota, and got to work spraying and wiping down the armored vehicle. She understood why Lambda was treating her like a rookie, and saw no point in complaining about it. As soon as their mission was completed, she could get out out of the Foundry with them.

"We have a fourth guy, Omega, who is still inside the APC." Iota said. "He'll be out with your weapon in a bit. It needs to be calibrated. We really weren't expecting a fifth squadmate."

"Understood." Joy said efficiently, fingering her rag behind the fenders around the treads where dirt had gathered. "I'm looking forward to dealing with the D-Tractor problem." She was honest about this. Eliminating the infestation would seriously benefit Riley.

Iota was standing next to a hard plastic crate, loaded in a basket mounted on the side of the vehicle. He tapped on it. "There's polish in here, I think. Lambda said she wanted the APC to 'shine,' so I think it's implied." He turned, and went around to the rear of the vehicle. "I'll be right over here, switching out the distributor if you need anything." Iota proceeded to open a large cover, exposing the vehicle's engine.

Joy continued looking for dirt spots on the heavy, metallic vehicle. "So... what are Lambda and Gamma doing?"

"Searching..." The noise of a tightened bolt being proken loose rang out from the engine area. "Asking around for go-juice handouts on the different floors. There's a shortage, but we need it to power the APC."

"Uh huh..." Joy said, walking around to the other side of the treaded vehicle, bottle and rag in hand.

* * *

It was the late afternoon. Riley was sitting atop a concrete elevation, with a chain link fence to her back. The spot overlooked a public skatepark. Her feet, equipped with rollerblades, dangled in the air above a wooden ramp fitted along the wall. The ramp went to her right and left.. She was alone as she watched the sun, low in the sky, adopt a richer color.

" _It's pretty, I suppose."_ Riley's Dim Joy said out loud.

" _I like the sunset."_ Sadness expressed. _"Especially when it makes you think... the day is almost over, and we'll never get it back."_

On Riley's left, a kid riding a skateboard came up to the ramp. He jumped it, then grabbed onto the chain-link fence to the side. He held onto it, letting his skateboard roll away, and climbed up to sit on the concrete elevation about half a meter to Riley's right.

"Hello, Jordan." She greeted.

"Hey," he said in a relaxed tone as he leaned back against the fence in as close to a slouch as he could muster in the limited sitting area presented by the wall. Jordan had dark, curly hair, and was almost perpetually spaced out, even in the aftermath of the stunt necessary to get up to sitting on the fenced wall.

" _Ooh! It's Jordan!"_ Dim Joy announced excitedly. _"He's sitting here because we are. That's so-"_

" _This is where we normally sit, Joy."_ Anger rebutted, slightly annoyed at her giddiness. _It's where we sat last time, and it's where we sat the time before that."_

" _We didn't even invent this spot. Kaede was here first and invited us."_ Disgust pointed this out with a fast, impatient monotone, wishing to point out a fact but interact with those she was pointing it out to as little as possible.

Riley tapped the heels of her rollerblades on the side of the wall a few times. "So..." she said, "what do you make of the Social Studies essay?"

" _Which we still haven't done!"_ Fear said out loud. " _Instead we're playing around here."_

"I'll get it done over the weekend, I think." Jordan replied.

" _Over the weekend..."_ Said Dim Joy. _"That's kinda just like what we're doing, isn't it?"_

"W _hy, on this brown Earth are you over-analyzing everything, Joy?"_ Said Disgust.

Another girl on rollerblades came up the ramp from Riley's right. After jumping it, she grabbed the chain link fence and climbed to the sitting spot on Riley's left. "Hey, Kaede." She greeted as she got settled.

"What's your status on the essay?" Jordan asked her.

"I'll... say it's in the works," she replied. Kaede was on the same hockey team as Riley. They had become friends when, in Hockey practice, they worked together to train in tactics that made the fullest use of Riley's left-handed shooting. Kaede was a stoic pragmatist, and didn't care about being in a support role as long as their team scored points.

"Great." Riley said out loud as she banged her head back lightly against the cushioning pliability of the chain-link fence. _Honesty island Increased its activity._ "Not one of us has made any real progress on it. Correct?"

Jordan groaned as Kaede looked in the other direction.

 _Dim Joy took the reigns._ "Oh, don't sulk you guys. I'm not judging." Riley said immediately following their reaction. "We've got the whole weekend after all. I'm not trying to schedule your lives." She looked left, and right, at both of them.

They were staring at her now. "And... where is this coming from?" Kaede said flatly, frowning lightly.

* * *

Inside Kaede's mind, captained mainly by her Disgust, they became attentive toward Riley's sudden lighthearted attitude.

"This must be addressed," said Kaede's Disgust, the biggest of her emotions, and standing in the center.

"I concur," said her Fear. "Riley is not normally so lenient."

"She insisted we practice all day that one time," said her Sadness. "No quitting, until we got the play right."

"It could be she's becoming weak." Her Anger speculated. "It could end up compromising the team, and we will begin losing matches."

"I am not convinced this is cause for alarm," said her Joy. "It is one instance. Perhaps an off day?"

"I am in agreement with Joy," her Disgust declared. "We will abstain from action until we know more. For now, let us observe."

"Very good."

"Fine then."

"Alright."

"Sure."

Concurred the other four emotions.

* * *

Riley shut her eyes a second, moving to the edge of their perch. "We'll... talk about it tomorrow, alright? I have to go home."

"You mean... talk about our essay assignment?" Kaede asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, of course. I'll... see you guys later." Riley hopped off the perch, turning her facing rightward and landing near the top of the ramp, and proceeding to roll down it naturally on her rollerblades.

Jordan watched her go.

* * *

"Alright guys. I'm convinced." Jordan's Joy was invested in the console, with his other four emotions stopping what they were doing one by one to have a look in varying levels of distance and interest.

"Convinced of what?" his Disgust asked.

"I'm convinced..." his Joy repeated, slouching as it propped its feet up on the console. "That it's all going to work itself out.

"Oh..." They all said in an elongated voice.

"No need to do anything, then."

"Corr-ect-a-mundo." His Joy said. "It's not like Riley is some frilly. And we do have all weekend for that essay. It's golden right now. I feel like..." The other emotions listened attentively. "I feel like we've done it, and we can kick back." With this, his Joy turned up the volume, and the emotions went about whatever they wanted to do.

* * *

"Hey, Sigma!" Lambda said.

In Riley's Thought Foundry, Joy was handed what looked like a hand cannon. It was two-handed, and she held it like a rifle. The one who handed it to her was Omega. He was somewhat shorter than Joy, with a rounded head and equally rounded eyes.

Omega had the novelty of lacking a mouth, and so he did not speak as he indicated with his hand a row of empty bottles set up on a table in the distance. Just behind the table was the rock wall which surrounded every floor of the Thought Foundry. And to the left of it was the gated off entrance to the cave network.

"That's an incinerator," said Lambda, who was observing the scene with her arms crossed. Gamma, behind her, was filling the APC with go-juice. "It's a weapon, for dealing with D-Tractors."

Joy was glancing at her from a sideways facing. "And by deal with, you mean..."

"Kill, of course," she nodded. "Go ahead, get a feel for it."

Joy aimed it at the row of bottles on the distant table. After a long, silent, inactive phase of aiming, she squeezed the trigger.

There was no recoil, and a soft, but heavy brushing sound as the gun fired a red beam of energy that extruded smoke. It narrowly missed the middle-left bottle, and burned a narrow hole into the rock facing behind the makeshift shooting range.

Joy remained in firing position. The others remained quiet. And she took another shot, this time striking the bottle and melting through it. There was no force energy in the shot, and so the bottle did not fall over as the afflicted area melted down and collapsed.

"That's how its done," Lambda remarked. "Keep going, 'till you have consistency."

Joy turned to Lambda, aiming the gun safely upward. "Is this powered by go-juice as well?"

She shook her head. "It's a weapon, not a motor, no."

"What, then?"

"Angry memories."

There was a spherical segment on the rear end of the gun's shaft. Joy undid a latch, causing half of its round form to swing away on a hinge. Revealing, inside, a deep red orb. Joy even saw the physical event which the memory was a recollection of. She turned to Lambda. "You're weaponizing Riley's experiences."

Lambda nodded. "That's right. The energy from a disgusted memory will only slow a D-Tractor down or make it sick. Sad ones drain their energy and dull their instincts. Fearful ones... actually make them stronger, as do joyous ones. Angry memories are the only ones that are practical for killing them."

Joy was looking at the angry memory, inserted as the power source for her new weapon. "What happens to the memory, when it's used up..?"

"It goes gray. The event itself can still be recollected, but it loses its emotional coloring."

Now Joy's eyes were shut. She closed the hatch over the memory. "So you go around stealing Riley's experiences, in order to power your guns?"

She only shrugged at this. "If I had any say at all in Headquarters, they'd pump out more angry memories. If there were more in circulation, we could afford to use more powerful weapons that use more than one orb at a time."

Joy's sense of responsibility for the well-being of Riley's mind made her want to object ot this. To yell and loudly denounce the irresponsible practices of Lambda and her team. But she kept herself under control.

Lambda continued, now leaning back on the APC. "It makes sense, doesn't it? The more angry experiences a person has had, the stronger their defenses against things like the D-Tractors."

Joy's jaw was clenched, she was speaking through her teeth. "What... kind of threat, do the D-tractors pose, that would call for using memories like this?"

Lambda let her hands drop, and bounced off from leaning on the APC. "You'll see for yourself tonight, Sigma. For now..." She turned, and walked away. "You're free to do as you want, I suggest practicing with your weapon. We head into the tunnels tonight, as soon as Riley goes to sleep."

Joy was left alone. She stood there, for several long minutes. Reflecting on what she'd just learned, and what negative side-effects it might have on Riley's mind. Were the D-Tractors really that big a problem? Was it worth draining the emotional charge of Riley's memories to solve?

After she finished standing still and processing, she immediately got back to it. With a resurrected optimistic energy, she lifted her weapon, and took another shot at the bottles.


	4. Ivory Tower

Headquarters had been expanded. A newly built section with its own support pillar, which connected to the original central section via what used to be its viewing window. The new expansion contained a conference table, and presented a dioramic view of the surrounding chasm and long-term memory archives beyond it, in every direction save where it connected to the main section.

Dim Joy was slouched at the head of the table, which was pear-shaped, with representatives from every important area of the mind seated along the broader area of the pear. The smaller area of the pear shape was elevated slightly, with the five Emotions seated there.

"It's nightfall," Dim Joy announced. "Riley has gone to sleep, and today's Daily Recollection Phase, which is the first in the history of Riley's mind, can now begin."

The representatives were all seated, somewhat adjusting to the new environment. No Mind Worker, or Emotion had ever attended a conference before.

"Our first item, and the primary topic of this conference, is the energy shortage." Dim Joy spoke with a speaker voice, which echoed through the conference room to be clearly audible to all in attendance. "Riley has had abnormally weak motivation of late, especially in regard to mental tasks. While this can obviously be attributed to a lack of energy material, otherwise referred to as 'go-juice,' the exact reason for the shortage remains unknown to us. The representative from the Thought Foundry will now address this inquiry."

Dim Joy seated herself, and a Mind Worker on the broad end of the table stood up. "The Thought Foundry, as you all know, is also the site of the largest go-juice mine currently in operation. Our people have prepared a presentation, which will hopefully illustrate the situation in a comprehensive manner."

A huge scale model was brought into the conference room by four workers carrying it in unison. They set it on the lower area of the table, and slid it to the center. The model presented a round plateau, surrounded by a circular range of pointed mountains. Atop the plateau and inside its valley was the long-term memory archive, the Islands of Personality, Imaginationland, as well as the chasm in the center, above the center of which was Headquarters.

The Mind Worker representing the Foundry had a long rod. "This is a scale model of Riley's Conscious Faculty. Everything about her mind which she is inwardly aware of is situated on, or in this area." He moved his rod to point to a spot in the mountains surrounding the plateau, where there was a round gaping hole. "This is the location of the Thought Foundry, and the central hub of all attached mining networks. These mines, which comprise seventy percent of all go-juice production, have become overrun with parasitic entities called D-Tractors.

The conference room erupted with chatter. "How did they get into the mines?" Fear asked out loud. "It's not like things just appear of of nowhere."

"We have a team of irregulars investigating the matter as we speak," the representative replied as he checked his watch. "They should be heading in... right about now."

* * *

The APC made the noise of a humming engine and rolling tracks. Joy felt her bare feet on the rough, uneven rock floor of the tunnel. She was on the right of the vehicle, with the shorter Omega ahead of her. Lambda and Gamma were on the other side, and Iota was driving. The vehicle's lights illuminated their path ahead.

The tunnels were not the real-world appearance of rock, but rather a peach color with a smooth surface. Even areas which had blast and pickaxe markings looked like they would be smooth to the touch.

There was also infrastructure in the tunnel; pipelines, set up on the walls and ceiling of the broad tunnels in a setup in which they'd be out of the way.

Omega kept dropping little rods, which glowed with a dim yellow light. They were markers, to signify their traversed path. Joy simply stepped over them, trying to keep alert and her gun ready.

As the group advanced, the field of vision given by the lights of the vehicle panned into a cluster of black, organic grubs. They were grouped together like a tangled mass of worms, and excreted glimmering slime all over the rock surface to which they were attached. They were congregated around a crack in the rock which gushed a blue liquid, combining their tongues around the spot to rapidly lap up any fresh substance to arise. The APC stopped at this.

"Sigma." Joy heard Lambda call out from the other side. "Why don't you show us what a couple hours of target practice did for you?"

Knowing what she was getting at, Joy leveled her weapon and fired on the grubs. One was hit, and it lit on fire, falling off the distant wall in a death curl. She shot the rest of them, one by one.

Once they were all gone, the short, diminutive Omega ran up to the opening in the rock, which was now gushing blue liquid in earnest. He looked up, at a pipeline situated above on the ceiling.

"Can you reach the hose up there, Omega?" Lambda asked.

Omega turned back, and nodded twice with his round head. He then turned back to the wall. Joy found it peculiar what the shortest member of the team would be the one to reach up somewhere high.

A long, thin limb shot out of Omega's back. It reached up behind the pipe, and pulled down what looked like a fire hose from a wheel mounted on the concealed side. The peculiarity of Omega being the one to do it vanished. Joy's gaze was frozen on the long limb.

It looked the same as the limbs of the spider-like creature that attacked her in Headquarters. Joy gripped her weapon harder.

Omega fixed the end of the hose into the crack, to absorb its output into the pipeline.

No, Joy stopped herself. The Spider had oval-shaped eyes, and Omega's were round. It could have been a different irregular with a similar ability. However, while Joy did not believe 100% that Omega was the Spider, she was glad that her spot in the formation was behind him, and not the other way around.

"You finished? Continue the advance, then." Lambda banged on the side of the APC, signaling Iota to move forward. The behicle turned right at the curve in the tunnel as the party passed the newly fixed juice hole.

"Hey, Sigma," Lambda called.

"Yes?" Joy answered.

"Those wormy things were Category One D-Tractors. They're pretty helpless on their own. But there's also been sightings of Category Twos down here.

"And I'm guessing those ones aren't helpless." Joy conjected.

"Mm hm, much less helpless. They vary in shape and anatomy, but the average size of Category Twos are about half the volume of the APC."

"They'll rip you up like fried chicken." Gamma sniped, also on the opposite flank of the APC.

"Dammit Gamma, stop trying to scare the rookie."

Joy ignored the chatter erupting between the two on the other side. She looked at Omega, ahead of her as they continued advancing through the tunnel, going slightly downhill. Omega peeked his round head back at her, looking shyly up at her face as he walked.

She smiled politely in greeting.

Omega tentatively faced forward again.

* * *

The model on the conference table, depicting the entirety of the plateau representing Riley's Conscious Faculty, had several things added to it during the course of the talks.

"This is my proposal," Dim Joy said. "The number of D-Tractors has increased dramatically in the last year, and there's no reason to think this increase will not continue. The one thing which they cannot breach, no matter the cost, is Headquarters."

The model's new additions consisted of a defense ring built around headquarters, as well as a separated station platform that did not dock directly with the main control room. Every train station that embarked in the direction of Headquarters was now built like a fortress, with walls, security checks and thorough inspections before any train was cleared for Headquarters.

One of the representatives stood. "While I agree, Joy, that headquarters cannot be compromised no matter the cost, I hope you are also aware of the implications of such a motion."

"Go on," Dim Joy said. "Explain them to me."

"Well, for starters," the pointing stick was passed to him, and he pointed to one of the fortified stations. "If every thrain of thought has to be stopped and thoroughly examined, they'll be slow to reach Headquarters, or any other destination. Riley's thinking will become significantly less efficient."

Fear interjected, "ooh... You know Joy, I was behind this idea, but now I'm not so sure. If Riley isn't thinking as efficiently, how will she perform in school? I'm thinking about that essay we still haven't done."

"I... appreciate your concerns, everyone," said Dim Joy. "But my decision stands. We're fortifying Headquarters. Who is the representative of the railroads?"

One of the Mind Workers stood up.

"If my information is correct, your sector has developed new thought trains with greater speed and freight capacity. Is this true?"

The Worker nodded. "Riley's brain is getting more efficient, slowly but surely. The new model will enter service within the month."

"This will make up for the hindrance presented by the new security measures," said Dim Joy.

"We could have both," Disgust said. "The new trains, and no new regulations. That would almost be like..." She opened her hands in a melodramatic 'poof' directed at Dim Joy. "We're getting _ahead._ "

"Once we're certain that the D-Tractors pose no threat to Headquarters, I'll lift the regulations."

"How, exactly, do you determine whether they're of no threat?" Anger asked, annoyed. "Is this some fancy word for never?"

"This meeting is adjourned." Dim Joy rose from her seat and left.

"Hold on a second. You're getting up and leaving?" Sadness called after. "Just like that?"

Dim Joy stopped, and turned to face the other four emotions. "I've made my motions clear. What do you expect? That we put it to a vote?" She walked away again, waving it off. "That would be ridiculous."

* * *

"D-Tractors follow a pretty simple plan." Lambda was making small talk as they explored the mining tunnels. Joy and Omega were on the right flank of the APC, with Lambda and Gamma on the left. Iota was driving. "They become more numerous in a mind that's getting older, and if they're not dealt with they even start nesting on the surface."

Joy was still at her spot in the formation, warily scanning everything ahead, illuminated by the APC's lights as they advanced through the tunnels. "You make it sound like that's the case for a great number of adults."

"I'd go as far as to say it's almost all of them. Adults' minds tend to be fortified everywhere; elevated platforms and memory banks built like bunkers. All to keep everything safe from D-Tractors. Not a lot from their childhood survives this adaption."

Joy wasn't enjoying this story. Lambda had to be wrong, or Riley an exception. The idea of her mind becoming what was being described was too much to accept. "Have you ever actually seen a different mind? I think you're just paranoid."

"Makes you think though, doesn't it Sigma?" Gamma, also on the left flank, said. "Makes you think: I wanna try extra hard to nip this problem in the bud."

It occurred again to Joy the reason why they were down in these tunnels, doing what they were doing. The weapon in her hands.

"Company halt!" Lambda called. The APC and everyone on foot, including Joy, stopped walking. "Iota, brites up."

The APC switched on its main set of lights, which beamed into a higher field than the driving lights. The brites shot across the tunnel, illuminating the far wall.

It was infested with grubs. Covering almost the entire visible wall, they were crawling about, searching for sustenance and moving on if they could not access it. They were as big as cats, with soft, lumpy flesh wrapped around their limbless forms.

"Fire at will."

It was a turkeyshoot. The four out on foot fired repeatedly, killing each grub with a single direct shot. Joy advanced closer, with Omega ahead of her doing the same as she got wrapped up in the excitement of killing the small parasites one by rapidly consecutive one.

The ground underneath her feet gave. She was stopped in her tracks by the startling feeling of one's footing suddenly becoming unstable. Joy looked to her right, at the tunnel wall, and saw a broad, squat opening in the rock made visible by her vibrant glow. The ground dropped more, upsetting her footing further. She did not say anything. The suddenness of the ground collapse caught her completely off guard.

Then it gave completely. She dropped through thin air, and slid into a downward slope. The gunshots of the Irregular team became quiet, and the sound of her sliding down the slope constant, and soon solitary as her glow illuminated the path within a couple meters from her. The stone sround her in the slide was wrinkled, and slightly pearlescent, as though it were coated in something. She could not get a grip or traction anywhere, and continued to slide down.

Joy landed in what looked like a natural cavern. Only a brief distance around her was visible on account of her natural glow. All she could see was a radius of floor, and the wall behind her. All else was pitch dark. She was separated from the others, now completely alone.

A noise, from the omnipresent direction of the darkness around her. The sound of brush being agitated, footsteps, burying into soft dirt in rapid succession. It came from her front. She could not see what it was. Could not see into the darkness beyond her glow. A high-pitched groan emanated from the source of the sound, followed by several heavy, natural clicking noises. The sound was deep and vibrant, implying a large size.

It came into Joy's field of light. More steps gringing into the dirt. A head, the size of a pickup truck, suspended several feet into the air. The visible head had two horizontal jaws, with a black, gleaming exo covering. It had no eyes.

Its thin antennae flailed about, touching everything in reach as the head inched closer to Joy. She was trapped in her corner. It made more heavy clicking sounds, now deafeningly loud on account of being made in her direction.

* * *

"Really guys, there's no need to be upset." Dim Joy was slouched on a couch near the control panel, watching tonight's dream. "We have it unbelievably good up here, and my fortification policy will make it all the safer."

Anger was mad, Disgust was trying to hide her disgust, Fear was afraid, and Sadness appeared sad.

"Riley is going through change," Dim joy continued. "I understand how that's never comfortable, but you'll all get used to it, I promise.

It was Sadness who spoke up. She stepped forward, "we're worried about you, Joy. You... haven't been yourself lately."

"Oh?" Dim Joy crooked her head, looking genuinely curious. "How so?"

"You're not even trying anymore," said Anger. "The number of joyful memories, and mixed memories that include your element have gone way down the last couple of days."

Dim Joy didn't rise from her slouch. She indicated the memory racks, "I made a huge batch of them right before Riley went to sleep."

"Yeah, but is that enough?" Fear added.

Disgust groaned at Dim Joy, "can we... not, talk about your new trick? Like, ever?"

"I don't know what you all want from me," Dim Joy exclaimed at all of them. She stood up and walked over to the control console, the other emotions' facing following her. "Puberty is a huge, huge deal, and I'm Riley's Joy, so of course it's affecting me.

There was a brief pause, "..like Sadness said, we're worried about what you're becoming."

"And I don't have an answer." Dim joy turned around to them, leaning on the edge of the control console, inadvertantly lighting it up with her now orange-ish color. Her tone was sober, calm. "I can't see the future. And odd as it might be for me to say this, there are actually things that are beyond my control."

"Just... just answer this one thing?" Sadness had stepped forward, her hands clasped. She looked on the verge of tears. "You... still want to make Riley happy, right?" She looked up at her, making eye contact. "That's still your goal?"

Dim Joy relaxed in posture, her face softening as she looked down at Sadness. "Yes. More than anything."

Sadness smiled quietly at this, now withdrawn to looking at her own fidgeting hands.

"Go on to sleep, you guys." Dim Joy turned around, to the dream being played on the screen. "I'll watch over Riley tonight."

* * *

Joy was backed against the wall. She saw her gun on the ground, several feet ahead of her, nearer to the creature's head. She saw one of its antennae feel it up, touching it several times before losing interest. It continued to make deafening, sickening clicking noises.

There was a sliding noise, coming from above and behind Joy. A new sound. And a new object entered Joy's vision. It was a small, dark purple blob, falling from above, and landing on the ground. It began moving. With short limbs and a stocky round head it scrambled to its feet. It had a rifle in its hand.

Joy recognized him as Omega. "Look out!" She exclaimed to him, fearfully watching the giant exocovering head as one of its antennae found him.

The head snapped to face her, having heard her. The next instant, it darted its massive form right into her, striking the rock wall behind her with its jaws.

Joy had narrowly dove leftward, out of the way. She saw the head from sideways now, and its bull-like neck, covered in overlapping plates. It pulled its jaws out of the stone, its thin, nimble antennae still darting in all places. Its head looked like a mix between an ant and a dragon, with no eyes to speak of.

A gunshot. Omega, to Joy's left farther from the wall, had shot one of its antennae at the base. It responded with a low, constant thrum of loud clicking. The head withdrew from Joy's field of light, followed by rapid, heavy footsteps as it retreated away.

Omega looked down, at Joy still on the ground. He then turned away, walked over and fetched her gun, coming back and presenting it to her handle first.

Joy looked up, at his mouthless face with blank round eyes. There was no point in asking questions. She took the handle of her gun, and he pulled her up on her feet, pulling horizontally, as she was taller than him.

The footsteps returned, growing louder and more rapid. They came from a new direction.

Joy readied her gun, her only defense against the massive creature. She looked at Omega.

He was offering his rifle as well, handle-first.

"Are... you sure?" She asked.

He nodded.

"You have a plan?"

He nodded again.

"Alright." Joy held her rifle in her dominant left hand, and took Omega's in her right. They weren't too heavy, and most of their weight concentrated in the rear where the memory was stored. She could hold them both in balance.

It was immediate. The massive head appeared again in Joy's light field, its antennae scanning relentlessly.

Omega had spawned limbs out from the sides of his back, this time many more than one. His original, humanoid limbs shrank in to nothing as he rose taller on the newly spawned appendages.

Joy saw this, saw that Omega now looked exactly like the Spider which attacked her in Headquarters. But it was not her concern now. Instinctually, out of both fear and desperation, Joy fired both rifles at the giant insect's head. And she continued firing. Its clicking became more intense as it snapped its head in irregular directions, flinching from pain.

Omega had leaped onto the head, climbing like an insect up the eyeless head above the jaws. He grabbed its two flailing antennae as he rapidly climbed up the head's mass, pulling them back and away from the front.

Joy ran away a bit, getting some distance before turning around and resuming firing on the creature's still visible head. With its antennae pulled away, and no sense of sight, it could only make blind, ineffective lunges. At the ground, at the stone, at the thin air, its jaws caught everything but Joy.

The heat beams, fired by the two weapons were burning chunks off the thick exocovering of the creatures head. Joy kept her distance, keeping off to the side a good distance. Moving after every several shots to keep it tracking her through the noise of the rifles. She started focusing her fire at one point, digging deeper into its armor.

The creature charged ahead blindly, now ignoring Joy. She had to dive out of the way to keep it accidentally trampling her. The rest of its body passed her field of light. Its main body was covered in the same overlapping plates as its neck, getting thicker in the middle, before thinning out into a tail in the rear. It ran on six insectoid legs.

It left her field of light, becoming invisible to her as its footsteps grew quieter. Omega was still atop its head as it retreated.

Joy was alone again in her field of light, with the creature somewhere out in the dark. She heard its footsteps, moving to her left, and then over to her right. Coming closer, but then inching away. She was separated from the wall, now standing out in the open floor of the cavern.

Joy lifted the rifle in her left hand, and fired blindly into the dark. The energy beam emitted light, temporarily illuminating the darkness with a dim red glow.

Its jagged silhouette became visible for an instant. And then its footsteps grew louder as it zeroed in on the sound of her gunshot. Joy fired more blasts in that direction, correcting her aim as each shot gave her a brief visual on its location. She was hitting it, and it clicked loud with pain on the consecutive impacts. Omega was nowhere to be seen, and its antennae moved freely.

It became fully visible in her light field as it charged at her. Joy stopped firing and dove out of the way. As it passed her by, one of its wandering antennae touched her, and it stopped itself. The giant insect pivoted, angling its head to snap down on her as the antennae checked her surroundings, sometimes confirming her position by tapping on her again.

Joy turned and ran. She did not want to take a shot at the base of its antennae and risk getting chomped in on by its jaws by remaining where she was. Her aim was still amateur, and would not justify such a risk.

Its heavy footsteps could be heard right behind her as she sprinted through the cave, able to keep her footing on the uneven terrain by her natural light showing the ground several paces ahead of her. The footsteps grew louder. It gained on her. She saw a stalagmite pass through her view on the right. And a broad, protruding rock on her left. Soon she would reach a wall, and become cornered.

She stopped, turned around and lifted her rifles. Firing rapidly and aiming for the base of its antennae. It was more than close enough for her to see its head. Many shots passed overhead. A few hit the general area of its shell.

One hit the base of an antennae.

It clicked in pain as it snapped down on her, homing in on the noise from her gunshots. She dove to the right; the side of the creature with the wounded antennae, narrowly dodging the attack.

A second snap down with its jaws followed only a second after the first, in Joy's direction. It only narrowly missed her. Narrowly, it failed to finish her. With its antennae on that side flagging and weak, it did not reach her to confirm her location.

Joy, still laying on the ground, rolled onto her back and shot it again. But there was no blast. The gun only made a slight hum that eventually coasted down to silence. It was out of anger. She discarded it and scrambled to her feet. The broad rock protruding from the ground was just ahead of her. She reached it, turning around to lean her back to it as she shot the still-pursuing monster with her remaining rifle.

It rapidly closed in on her, only enraged by its wounds. Joy pushed herself back harder into the rock, firing away at its giant, reptillian, insectoid head as it snapped down on her.

And when it did, she was between its jaws.

* * *

Dim Joy sighed in relaxation. Her feet up on the console, and a cup of sugary coffee in her hand. She was watching Riley's dream, warm and cozy in her cushy chair.

The dream being depicted was abstract. Swirling colors and rigid ripples of shape. It was soothing, and she could just tune herself out, not having a care in the world.

"Hey, Joy." The voice was Sadness'.

"Top of the evenin' to ya," Dim Joy said, only glancing to Sadness before looking back at the screen. "What's got you up at this hour?"

"I, umm... couldn't sleep like the others. And... I was wandering if..."

Dim Joy shrugged. "I don't see why not. Pull up a seat, Sadness."

She smiled quietly at this as she went and got a chair. She set it next to Dim Joy's; on her right. Once she got settled, Dim Joy pushed a plate of crumpets closer to her. "The dream's going through an abstract phase right now. It's pretty enjoyable, I suppose."

"Yes," said Sadness. "Nonfigurative thoughts. I like when they're slow, and have purple, blue, and other cold colors."

"That would provoke... sad feelings. But also perhaps serenity, calm, introspection."

Sadness nodded at this. "I've learned I like all those things. That you listed, I mean."

"I can see why you'd be cordial with those moods." Dim Joy continued looking on the dream. "A lot of what we call emotions, are really just behavioral patterns, or labels given to experiences of certain flavors. Like giving a name to every different part of the human anatomy. We call them their own thing because they're familiar, and the mind gives it more consideration as a result."

"And..." Sadness looked over at Dim Joy, "this doesn't qualify them as real emotions, necessarily."

"Our position is unique." Dim Joy continued. "We get to see the machinery, the guts. The mind is a mystery to all people. Even modern science has little idea of how the human brain works. It has been said that space is the final frontier. But which do you think humans will successfully explore first: Outer space, or their inner selves?"

Sadness only shrugged at this. "You're asking a really big question. I don't think anybody can see the answer from here."

"I think it can be seen from here. Because it is here." Dim Joy took a sip of coffee and remained reclined back in her chair, watching the abstract dream. "I think, that humans will understand the universe they exist in, long before they understand themselves. We marvel at the mysteries of the universe, but the truth is, human beings are the greatest mystery of all."

"You think... that the human mind is the true final frontier."

"Well isn't it? The human mind is a place where the impossible becomes possible. Where cycles can be broken, rules can have exceptions made for them, and the things that are precious and irreplaceable enthroned. And the mind has the power to make these things happen in the real world as well."

"But there are limits to this power; things in the real world that can't be beaten. There are cycles that can't be broken and precious, irreplaceable things that you have to part with no matter what you do. The mind can't help that. And in many ways it never will."

"That doesn't matter." Dim Joy was shaking her head. "At least, I don't think that matters. No matter how realistic the real world becomes. No matter how grey, and soul-crushing. The mind will always be a place we have. And a place where anything is possible.

* * *

Joy was still in one piece. The Creature's horizontal jaws were stopped by the rock right behind her. The jaws' reach went past her, and instead hit the wider rock, with Joy safely between them, unhurt on account of the jaws' inability to reach her.

Its remaining unhurt antennae tapped on her repeatedly, ensuring that she was where she was. It then widened its jaws and chomped down on her again, but was again stopped by the rock it couldn't see, and which its one working antennae failed to notice. It made loud clicking noises.

With her vibrant glow, Joy saw up the span of its head. Saw the gunshot wounds on its exoskeleton, and one in particular which went wide and deep. Her remaining rifle hung at her side. She lifted it, leveled it, and shot the base of its remaining antennae.

It backed away, eminating clicks, and releasing gouts of pressurized breath. Joy had leaped onto its face and climbed up past the jaws, abandoning her gun. It began moving around and thrashing its head as she held onto its roughly formed shell, finding creases in the folds and seams of the exoskeleton to dig her mitts into.

It stopped thrashing its head, and then began running in one direction. She used this chance to climb up more, and reach the deep gunshot wound.

Joy shot her hand into the hole. An emotion, a being of energy, her hand busted the rest of the way through, and burned into its brain.

* * *

Riley awoke suddenly. But did not sit up. She reached over and turned on the lamp on her end table. There was something on her forehead, something prickly, and it moved.

" _You're awake now, Fear. Are you not going to make her do something?"_

" _Let's see what it is first, okay? Then she can panic."_

Riley gently moved her hand overhead, and picked it up between an index finger and thumb.

It was a boxelder bug; a big one. Its long, ponderous legs were swiping at the air.

" _Perfect, a big bug."_ Disgust said sarcastically.

" _No jumpscare, Fear? Your switch is right there."_

Fear did nothing. _"I don't know why, guys, but right now I don't feel the urge. It's just a bug, right? In fact it's kinda cute."_

" _Fine, then. Let's just toss the thing and go back to sleep."_

" _Wait, hold on guys," s_ aid Sadness. _"Shouldn't we let the bug outside? It feels wrong to just leave him in here where there's no food."_

There was groaning, in both Riley's mind, and made in the physical world by her at herself. _"Fine, take it away Sadness."_

She got out of bed, the boxelder bug still in hand. It was a brief few steps to the window, on the left of the end table and directly across the room from the door. She undid the lock and lifted the window open. There was a screen in place. The screen was there for the purpose of preventing te very thing that woke her from happening. The locks were on the sides of its frame, and she pulled one out, then proceeding to push that lower corner out from its slot with her free hand.

The bug was set near this opening on its feet. "Go on out, now," she whispered to it.

The boxelder bug remained put. Its antennae brushed on the piece of screen frame that was protruding to allow for its opening out, near Riley's index finger. She waited patiently for it to just go, so she could shut everything back up and go back to bed.

After sitting there for many long seconds, the large bug began pivoting, turning away from the opening. Its antennae continued touching everything in reach. Riley frowned with annoyance.

* * *

The cavern had dim lights, which awakened as Riley awoke. Minerals, thinly under the peach stone of the walls and ceiling, emitted a weak glow. This rendered the cavern dimly, but universally visible. Like starlight In a cloudless night sky.

The giant bug lay limp on the ground, the hole in its head smoking from Joy's discharge of energy into its brain. Its black exoskeleton was losing its color, transforming from grey, and into white.

Joy herself was looking for Omega. Her own glow being her only source of light limited her search, but when the mineral lights turned on, it wasn't long before she found him, reverted back to his stubby humanoid form and laying unconscious on the ground.

The cavern itself was revealed to be quite vast, with a sky-like ceiling and the ground they were on being an overhead cliff to an even larger floor below, all underneath a consistently spherical dome. Without the giant bug stomping around and clicking, it was quite quiet and peaceful.

Omega was unconscious, and so she couldn't interrogate him. Even if he was, he didn't have a mouth. She had to think of a way to get answers from him. She picked him up and hoisted his rounded form over her shoulders.

Joy took them closer to the wall, and left Omega leaning and sitting against a rock. She then headed toward the cavern wall. The slide she fell through would be too slippery to climb back up, and she needed to find an alternate way out. The other Irregulars were no doubt searching for them, and by extension the same thing.

As Joy toured the wall, she heard a familiar sound. The sound of heavy footsteps, and eerie clicking. She turned around.

The giant bug was on its feet. Its color had changed fully, to a clean white, with golden yellow on the extremities of its plating. The wound on its head was no longer smoking. It had been following her. It did not attack.

Joy planted her hands on her hips. "Are you going to behave yourself, now?"

It made more clicking, standing put. Its voice spoke directly into her mind: _You did not destroy me._

Joy smiled perkily. "I'm Joy; It's not in my nature to destroy things. If you'd been up against Anger, however, that'd be a different story." She walked closer to it as she clasped her hands behind her back and hopped up and down on her feet energetically. "What effect has it had, might I ask? Blasting my energy directly into your brain."

More clicking. _I... no longer have any desire to disrupt your designs. Your wish to promote joy in this mind, is now my wish as well._

Joy nodded at this. "In that case, do you know a way I can get out of here?"

 _A small distance further in the direction you were going. And then through a few paces of rock wall. You will then be in the tunnel network dug by the Mind Workers._

"I'm liking what I'm hearing. Go fetch the little guy- don't hurt him. And then meet me at that spot."

It turned around, pivoting in the direction of where she'd left Omega.

"Oh, hey, wait a minute," Joy called after. "What's your name?"

It stopped, and its antennae began moving about again. _I am a Primal Fear. Dwelling deep within the reptillian layer of the consciousness. Few minds experience me in more than brief glimpses; moments which come and pass, leaving no lasting impression._

"You're... not a D-Tractor?"

 _No. I existed long before the D-Tractors._

"Okay..." She was nodding, processing this. "Welp, you're my pal now, and you'll need a name. Got any suggestions?"

 _I have always been partial to the phrase Onyx Spire._

"Alright..." she was nodding slightly, trying to gel with its interesting taste in names. "But seeing as you've gone through a palette swap, what do you think of Ivory in place of Onyx?"

 _Very well._ It pivoted the rest of the way, heading out to fetch Omega. _My name will be Ivory Tower._


	5. Of Insects and Emotions

Ivory Tower dug through the rock face, slicing and shaving on alternating angles with its jaws. Joy watched it do this, keeping a safe distance as it eagerly made itself useful to her. She'd recovered both rifles, one spent and one nearly so. And Omega, still unconscious, was laid up next to her.

"How well do you know these tunnels?" Joy watched Ivory Tower sticking its head into the opening it made in the rock, advancing forward and keeping a steady footing as it continued chewing through.

 _Quite._

"As in quite well?"

 _Yes._

"In that case I need you to lead the way. I hardly know anything about the layout of this place."

 _Where are we going?_

"Actually, I was wondering if you knew a way to reach the surface from the tunnels, outside the Thought Foundry." It would save her a lot of hassle of she didn't have to deal with the Foreman again.

It continued digging, talking and working at the same time. _I know of an exit which can be reached from the natural caverns. However the path is laden with hazards. Your safety would not be guaranteed._

"Really? Listen, I'd really like to take that way. Forget the hazards."

 _There are large D-Tractors along the path. They would not attack me out of fear, however, an Emotion would be too valuable a target to resist. And I am afraid my lack of eyesight would make me a poor protector._ Its head came out from the hole it was digging, and it looked her way; the direction of her voice. _Your remaining weapon is nearly deplete of energy, is it not?_

Joy had the empty rifle slung it over her shoulder by the strap. The one with some firing energy remaining remained in her hands. "Yeah... I guess you have a point."

 _The hole is complete. You can now enter the artificial tunnels, and make your way back to the Foundry._

"You're not coming?"

 _I would not fit into the Mind Worker-dug tunnels. In addition, my presence would cause a panic in the Thought Foundry._

"I suppose you have a point," said Joy. "I want you to take that other route you mentioned, and meet me outside. I'll be taking the trams out of these mountains."

 _Understood. Question: how will I find you? I haven't eyes by which to see things on the surface._

"You're a being of joy now, right?" She was picking Omega up by the arm, and slinging him atop her shoulders. "You'll be able to sense where I am. You're not feeling it right now because I'm close by."

 _I will assume it is as you say. I will exit these mountains, and then seek you out._

"Good deal." Joy, with Omega over her shoulders, headed toward the newly carved hole in the stone. She balanced him with one hand, and held the usable rifle in her other. She heard ivory Tower heading off the other way.

The gentle lighting from under the rock of the tunnels gradually faded. Riley was going back to sleep. This left Joy's natural glow as her only light source. It lit the pitch-dark tunnels in a limited radius. This was enough to walk.

It was what felt like an hour of wandering through the maze of mining tunnels. Before she finally encountered the Irregulars and their APC. They explained that Omega had swallowed a transponder before leaping through the hole after her, and that was how they found them.

"We're nowhere near the source of the D-tractors." Lambda stated, walking on the same flank of the vehicle as Joy. "Not a single grub in sight as we got closer to you and Omega. We'll have to head back to the Foundry, and resume our search next night."

"I'm... sorry, I caused you trouble," Joy said.

"Don't worry about it. Though I do need a report. Did you see anything peculiar? And how come Omega's hurt?"

Should I tell her about Ivory Tower? Joy asked herself. She could just say she found nothing, but that wouldn't explain why Omega was unconscious, or why their weapons were depleted...

Joy shook her head, now suddenly smiling. A much simpler, much less problematic answer popped into her mind. "I ended up in a huge natural cavern, and was attacked by a colossal bug. It looked like a giant termite."

Lambda's head was slowly tilting curiously as they walked together in sync with the APC and she listened to joy's story. "So... a Category Three, or Four?"

"Nope! It wasn't a D-Tractor. It was a Primal Fear. At least that's what it told me."

"Sigma," Lambda said abruptly. "A report is a statement of facts, recounted to the best of your memory. This is sounding like a crazy story. There's no way you killed a Primal Fear. Those things are crazy nutzo monsters deemed too hazardous for the Supermax Subconscious."

"I didn't kill it."

"So... you escaped?"

"Nope! Again. I brainwashed it. Shot my energy right into its noggin. It sorta lives to serve me now."

"Sigma..." Lambda was growling the name.

"Also, my name isn't actually Sigma. I lied. It's actually Joy." It felt great, to just plainly tell the truth.

Lambda looked ahead, shaking her head. "The file did say you were a gifted liar, Sigma. Fine, you can give your report when we reach the Foundry. And I expect the truth then, alright?" She climbed atop the APC while it was in motion, moving over to her and Gamma's side.

Joy was frowning after her. It was a frown of slight annoyance, and mostly confusion. She'd been telling the whole truth, and Lambda just brushed it off. "Hey, Lambda!" She called after.

"Yeah." She replied from the other side of the moving vehicle.

"What file are you talking about?"

"I looked up your file soon after you joined up, while you were target practicing. You checked out, of course."

"W...W..." Joy was trying to find words. "Could I... see, this file when we get back?"

"Of course."

"Good." Joy's arms were crossed around her rifle, and she was looking straight down as she walked.

"Hey Sigma, I showed you how to reload earlier, right?" Gamma's voice could be heard.

"Yeah, you did."

"Well, there's fresh memory orbs in the box near you."

There was indeed a box mounted on Joy's side of the APC. She changed her walking course over to it as she wrestled with the container on the back of her rifle.

* * *

Dim Joy shut the manual in her hand, plopped it on a growing stack of them, and then picked up a fresh one.

She was consulting the Mind Manuals, probing them for information. Riley's dream played naturally out in the corner of her vision. The dream was of a film she had seen. A lightweight male voice was monologuing something. It had continued for awhile, sometimes looping back to specific parts, sometimes repeatedly on account of it being a dream. _"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business."_

Dim Joy's eyes looked up. She recalled this film; in the past she had picked up Riley's memories of it and watched them. The context was that the hero was identical in appearance to an ambitious dictator, and in the end he ends up switching and taking his place. The Hero, impersonating the dictator, delivers his own speech; one which a benevolent ruler would give.

Dim Joy stood up, resting a hand on the console. Her orange color spread to the impressionable control deck, and the speech continued, from beginning to end uninterrupted.

When it was finished, Dim Joy paused, letting the heat of the passed moment cool. She crashed back into her chair, slouching like a cat. With this supremely relaxed posture, and her face pointed upward from her laid-back head, she laughed.

Her laughter echoed across the central control room of Headquarters. Nobody else heard it.

* * *

"Here you go, Sigma. I present to you... well, you."

Joy was looking at a file, displayed on a computer screen which was set up on a table next to the APC. She and the Irregulars had made it safely back to the Foundry, and now Iota was showing her the Sigma file. It was the middle of the night, and the Foundry was inactive, with only the sparse embers of furnaces still smoldering on their floor.

The photo on the record looked exactly like Joy. The same hairdo, the same body shape, and even the same face. The only discrepancy was color; the photo had dark green skin with purple hair.

Joy's eyes were glued on the photo. "I don't understand... there's an Irregular who looks just like me?"

"Well, you obviously had a dye job done. Other than that, it's a photo of you. Your file checks out."

Still in a state of disbelief, Joy ran her hand back through her hair, breathing heavily. "No, this isn't me. It can't be me. This is some grandiose coincidence."

Lambda had approached from the side. "Look, Sigma." She was pointing to the screen as Iota scrolled down. "You arrived here at the Foundry right on the time your schedule said you would arrive."

Joy looked at the time table, and Sigma was indeed scheduled to arrive at the Foundry the previous day; the same time Joy had awoken at its bottom. "It's coincidence," she said.

"If you're not Sigma, then where's the real Sigma? And how did you know to call yourself by that name? The only explanation is that you're her." Iota stated this plainly; as matter of fact.

Joy was hit with a fit of anger at them not believing her. She wheeled around and banged her fist on the APC. "I was dropped down two hundred stories into the pit and didn't die. I came to you with no weapons training." Her voice elevated. "And I brainwashed a Primal Fear." She wheeled back around to them. Gamma was also observing, looking up from his Solitaire game. "What explanation is there for these things, unless I'm Joy?" Her face had transformed, into the most serious of looks; a look of intent. "If you cannot believe me, then I've no use for any of you."

Lambda looked awestruck. Iota was looking away, scratching himself, uncomfortable. Gamma was stiff; he looked scared.

Lambda stepped forward. "Can we... go talk over there?" She was indicating the ledge overlooking the shaft, a fair distance away from their setup near the rock wall.

Joy sighed, held there for a moment, and then nodded. They both went toward the inner ledge of the broad, donut-shaped floor.

Iota and Gamma watched them walk away. "How much?" Gamma asked.

"How much- what are you talking about?" Iota replied as they both kept their eyes on Lambda and Joy.

"How much do you bet Lambda's gonna beat the crap out of Sigma?"

"How much do I bet..? Oh, certainly," said Iota. "I bet it'll get really nasty, and involve some of the machinery around here at one point. Then Sigma will learn her lesson and never act out again."

Gamma already had a small book open, and a pencil ready to write into it. "Great. How much can I put you down for?"

"Nothing," he said. "I'm not betting."

Gamma snapped the small book shut.

Warm air rose up the shaft, brushing against Joy and Lambda as they stood near the edge. They were out of earshot of anybody else on the floor.

"Look," Joy said. "I'd like nothing more than to help you solve the D-tractor infestation, and I still plan on doing so. But I'm done with lying."

Lambda had a hand raised, looking away with the smallest of smiles. "I believe you."

Joy stopped herself, biting back what she was going to say next. "You do..?"

Lambda nodded, "I've always believed in Joy. She's a great leader."

"Well... thanks, I guess." Joy was scratching the back of her head. "You're no slouch yourself."

Lambda shook her head at this. "No, what I am is a commander. I can keep people in line, I can give orders. But in the end..." She indicated her team, in the distance with an outstretched hand. "I'm not the reason they're here. I'm not like you. I'm not an Emotion."

"You... really do believe me. Even though I look just like this Sigma person."

Lambda nodded lightly as she turned her head to face the shaft. It was nighttime, with the mind asleep. The glow of furnaces and beaming of electric lights from all floors below and above their position, produced an effect of a swirling cityscape all around them. Joy observed this spectacle as well, and they shared a moment of silence.

"You need to go back."

Joy's head snapped to look at Lambda. "I already told you, I want to help."

"You want to help? Then I'll tell you how you can: You can go back to the safety and comfort of your Headquarters. And once you're there you can run things. Run them well, like you've always done. That, Joy, is your place and your part. And if you don't accept it, everything suffers."

"It's only a breach though, right? I can help you seal it and be on my merry way before breakfast." Joy perkily spread her hands as she described this.

"Inaccurate, Joy. The truth is we don't know whether there's one breach in the mines, or several. Or whether another breach will happen while we're resolving the ones we know. We could be down here working on the problem for weeks, even months. You cannot be away from Headquarters for that long.

Joy groaned at this, keeping her teeth together as she leaned forward sagging, a hand on her hip.

Lambda was frowning, trying to get her point across, but not too forcefully. "You have to do your duty, by neglecting this one."

Joy, after a sequence of silent expressions, finally nodded. "I see your point. When I get back to HQ, though, the infestation is going to be my priority one."

"We can consider this a formal meeting then. You're down here in person, inspecting the troops."

Joy had a small smile at this. "Tell me what you need to get this done as soon as possible."

"More angry memories; a larger supply volume."

Joy instantly exhaled, looking away toward the open and lit shaft of the Foundry.

"We've got much stronger weapons than those rifles, but can't use them. Our memory budget is rather limited."

"Lambda, I am really, really on the fence about using them at all."

"There's no other way to kill D-tractors. They're getting worse, Joy. We need the big guns."

Joy's hands were rustling the sides of her hair. "They're Riley's experiences. There's no way to replace them."

Lambda pointed at her with a closely raised hand. "That is a dilemma you have to deal with. And this mind will bear the consequences, good and bad."

She inhaled, becoming tense; twitchy in her concession, "you're right." Her speech was rapid, forcibly soft. "You're right again. I should just up and hug you, you're right."

"You do need to get out of here."

"I agree."

"What's keeping you from doing that?"

Joy indicated the control center above, suspended over the shaft. "The Foreman said only Mind Workers can ride the tram. My plan was to pass myself off as an Irregular, then ride off with you guys."

A frown, "he said no to you?"

"He didn't believe I was me. He thought it was an act."

"Alright, alright." Lambda was nodding as she turned to the side, and began pacing in front of Joy. "In that case we have a list of options, which I want to propose to you."

Joy crossed her arms. "Shoot."

"One," a raised index finger. "We take over the control center, hold the insubordinate Foreman at gunpoint, and force him to let you out of the Foundry."

"I don't like that one. Next, please."

Two raised fingers. "Option Two, and this one's my favorite-"

"Why don't I smuggle myself into the delivery tube? Next time Headquarters orders thoughts, it would take me straight there."

Lambda frowned. "That's a very powerful vacuum. And what if one of the thoughts pinned you against the tube wall? They weigh like a ton."

"I'm not worried about dying. Perpetually digested by a giant termite, yes, that'd be terrible, but..."

"You're going off on a tangent."

Joy fixed her face a bit. "..Well yeah," she blabbed. Then she perked up. "But my plan holds up, right?"

"They keep a close eye on what goes up the tube. They see you, and they'll shut off the vacuum. What gets to go to Headquarters is a very sensitive manner."

Joy flipped her hand over in the air. "Then you can force the Foreman to let me go up the tube."

Lambda smiled, shaking her head. "I'll give you credit for creativity, but still a no-can do. He may be coerced to let someone unauthorized on the trams, but Headquarters is a whole new level of important. He'd take tube access to his grave."

Joy sighed, and remained like this for a full ten seconds. "Alright, fine, what's your Plan Number Two?"

"I'm glad you asked." Lambda clapped her hands together. "Cue: Your ticket out of here:" She pointed over Joy's shoulder, in the direction of the shaft.

Joy turned, and Omega was hanging right in front of her face, suspended on a long, thin appendage gripping something above. She jumped backward, letting out a yelp.

"Omega told me you've seen his spider form," said Lambda. "He's going to spirit you out of here."

Joy turned back to her. "I don't think he's strong enough to carry me, and besides..." He was almost certainly the one who attacked her in Headquarters, kicking off this whole mess.

Lambda took out an orb. It was golden yellow; a joyful memory. "He will be strong enough, for a short time at least.

Joy felt her stomach sink. "What are you planning to do with that..?"

"Omega isn't an ordinary Mind Worker. I wouldn't even call him an Irregular, if not for the definition of the word."

"Oh... no. No, no, no-" He eats memories, doesn't he? She thought to herself. It would definitely explain why he wanted to steal the Orange Orb.

"Come on, Omega!" Lambda called, talking to him like he was a puppy. "Come get the tasty memory."

Omega swung forward letting go with his appendage above. He landed on his feet, walking up to the held out memory with short, stocky strides. Lambda stepped back, still holding the orb aloft. Then she chucked it underhand, "there ya go!"

Omega's round head shot up and he caught the memory, holding it with two stubby arms into his face. The memory slowly sunk into his black, furry skin.

As Joy stood watching this happen, Lambda turned to her. "Are you ready to get out of here, Joy?"

Joy broke eye contact with what Omega was doing, turning to look at Lambda. She could only sigh, nodding in agreement. "I'm... really glad, that you decided to believe my story. It's made things much easier for me."

She raised her hands. "Joy please, no drama. I don't do the drama."

"No... you just do the job, am I right?" Joy had a small smile.

Lambda waved it off. "Get her outta here, Omega. See her safe to Headquarters."

Omega grabbed her from behind, piggy-back style, and she was lifted into the air on his extending limbs.

They moved quickly. Omega headed toward, and then climbed vertically up a support column bordering the open shaft. His hands gripped without slipping, and his arms made long strides in their rapid ascent. Joy saw the opening to the night sky above grow larger in perspective. To her left, she saw the control center passing her field of vision.

Within a minute, they'd reached the top of the shaft and emerged at the surface.

They were on top of a mountain. The surrounding area was covered in snow, and there were other mountains in the hazy distance.

Not far below, a train came out of a tunnel on the mountain, traveling on an elevated rail that went smoothly down the slope. It ran on a single large rail, and there were two rails running parallel to one another. It was already coasting down the right side rail, and it was too fast to catch. Another track, situated above the monorails, supported a giant vacuum tube which arced into the sky.

Joy pointed down to the lower tram tracks. "Let's follow those rails, Omega. They'll lead us to Long-Term Memory, and then to Headquarters.

Omega's spider limbs shortened, receding back into his body. He set Joy down on her feet as he fully reverted back into his short, stocky self.

"Omega, what's wrong?"Joy asked, tentatively taking a step toward him. "Did the memory wear off?"

The mute Irregular was looking into his hands, then he looked over at the hole in the top of the mountain; the Thought Foundry below. He then turned his head to see the snowy landscape around the outside of the mountain. Lastly, he looked up at Joy.

"Don't tell me you're scared of heights." Joy was cracking a smile, trying to rationalize why Omega was acting this way. "Are you getting cold feet?"

Omega shook his head at her inquiry, then looked down at his feet in the mountain snow. Again, he looked back up at her.

"No, I didn't mean literally."

Omega turned away, walking off a few steps and sitting down to overlook the ledge above the lit Foundry.

Joy came, and patiently sat next to him. "I do need to get out of here, you know."

Omega continued staring down at the Foundry. He was slow to process Joy's words, and nodded when he did.

"Maybe... I could recharge the memory you ate? It'd be worth a try."

Omega reacted to this, taking a now grey and non-emotional memory out of the spot where his mouth would normally be. It came out slowly, and once it was free he presented it to her.

When Joy had it in her hand, it did indeed slowly regain its color. The memory was a rather routine one. It presented imagery of Riley waking up in the morning, seeing the first dim light peering in through the window.

Once the memory was once again a golden yellow, she handed it back to Omega. He took it in both outstretched mitts, and began pushing it into his face below his round eyes. It slowly sank in.

"This is great!" Joy exclaimed. "Even if the trains aren't running, you can walk me straight up to Headquarters via the island channels." She couldn't contain her giddiness. "I might well make it back by later tonight."

Something was wrong. Omega suddenly gripped his own head between his hands. He vibrated and turned his small self left and then right in jerky, impulsive motions.

"Omega, hey, what's-"

Omega's eyes became tall ovals. He rapidly shifted into spider form, his long appendages growing out as his humanoid limbs shrank into his dark, stocky body.

Joy had no time to react. Omega picked her up with two free hands, and then tossed her.

Into the crater, the opening, the shaft. Back into the Foundry.

* * *

Consciousness. It came with opening her eyes to a bright light. She did not want to wake, feeling restful and relaxed. There was no real need to wake up at a certain time, as it was a Saturday. A recent but familiar lack of energy made its presence known to her, keeping her in bed and her eyes shut.

Riley's phone vibrated. She picked it up while peeking one eye open to check. It was a text, from Jordan, asking where and when they should meet up. Riley remembered the essay, and how none of their trio had done it yet.

 _Isn't that dandy?_ Said Disgust. _We're just as disinclined as Jordan and Kaede, but they expect us to motivate them._

Sadness interjected, _They actually do the same thing for us. It's mutual._

 _I can't believe we're making such a big fuss over a stupid essay!_ Anger took the reigns. Riley tossed off her blanket covers and shot up on her feet. _Come on, we're getting this out of the way, right now._

* * *

Joy awoke in the exact same manner as Riley, to a bright light which she saw from laying on the bottom rock floor of the Thought Foundry. She could see the sky, up through the shaft. It was daylight, meaning Riley had awoken.

"You know how I'm feeling, right about now?" Joy said out loud.

" _I am uncertain. You yourself are the embodiment of a feeling. Having feelings yourself is bound to happen in an abnormal fashion."_

It was a voice speaking directly into her mind. And it was familiar. Joy turned her head a bit, peeking an eye open to see Ivory Tower's massive head looming over her. "Hey, Ivory," she greeted. "You found me, well done."

It made rapid physical clicking noises. _"I am curious. What, indeed are you feeling?"_

"Do you know that squat little guy who was with me down in your cavern?"

" _Yes."_

"If you seem him again, I want you to eat him."

" _Noted."_

Joy shot up to her feet, and marched toward the underneath of the plates, Ivory Tower's massive insectoid figure following. "I'm not sure how to describe this feeling, Ivory. It's probably what it's like to be Anger. But the kind of anger in which I just have to do something."


	6. Angry Uprising

Dim Joy was watching external surveillance of the spire which Headquarters rested upon. It was surrounded by a black chasm, and around the vast chasm further out was the long-term memory library; a fingerprint-like landscape of colorful shelving which went past the horizon.

The spire had an exterior texture which suggested a combination of smaller spires bundled together in an evenhanded arrangement. One of these segments was darkened; it did not glow white like the rest of the exterior. She saw it rotating, slowly, revealing an opening and an interior going up its entire height, and loaded with processed thoughts, one stacked atop the other. They looked worn, burnt and cracking.

Once the segment opened completely, the burnt, spent thoughts leaned out of their own accord. The stack continued to lean outward until all of the thoughts fell out. They fell into the chasm, forgotten. Now emptied, the section of the spire rotated shut, and regained its glow.

Dim Joy turned, and observed a newly added viewing port. It was a transparent piece of wall, and through it she could see new processed thoughts falling down the shaft from above. They would fill the emptied cylinder below with fresh thoughts, and energy would once again flow through them and up into Headquarters. She'd read in the Mind Manuals that the processed thoughts were like read-only data chips. They served as a script for an energy field generated over Headquarters, which influenced the thinking of any entity inside; namely the Emotions who ran things.

"Joy!" The voice was Anger's. He was approaching her from behind. "We need to have a talk."

Dim Joy snapped out of her silent musing, turning halfway to look at him. "About what?"

He stopped a short distance from her, his arms were crossed. "It's about the go-juice shortage."

She sighed, looking upward. "Fine, fine. What's the news?"

"The shortage has reduced the Foundry to sixty percent productivity, and that's not enough to replenish the supply faster than we consume. Tube Number Seven has just been restocked, and they say they're nearing the end of their reserves."

She groaned at this, looking off and holding the top of her head with her mitts. "This is all I need..."

Anger's eyebrows were up, and he was shaking his head with a slight underbite. "It's not a good situation, boss."

"I need to speak with the Foreman." Dim Joy said as she walked past Anger toward the other side of Headquarters, to an auxiliary terminal meant for interaction with other parts of the mind. "There has to be a way to fix this. Some simple answer we're simply not seeing. Maybe with rationing-"

"They're already doing that." Anger was following right behind. "And I really should have opened with this, but..."

Dim Joy reached the terminal, and dialed the address of the Foreman's office in the Foundry. There was only static.

"..We lost contact with the Thought Foundry."

There was a pause, Dim Joy was frowning in thought. "..When?"

"As of four minutes, fourty eight seconds ago."

With her back to Anger, Dim Joy's eyes were darting let and right. "I don't understand. Could it be an accident? A malfunction? Adverse weather?"

Anger just shrugged. "Maybe sabotage."

"Sabotage... sabotage..." Suddenly her eyes were wide open, and she inhaled abruptly. "Sigma."

"As in the Greek letter?"

Dim Joy turned, calmly. And then looked at Anger. "Sigma is an irregular Mind Worker who looks just like me."

"Irregulars..." Anger flavored the word. "Those are the Workers who are made weird, right? They're defects who are stuck into their own miscellaneous category."

"Sigma is a step yet below that," Dim Joy said. "She has a gift for lying and manipulation, and is only interested in sowing disorder."

"And she looks just like you."

Dim Joy turned back to the terminal, and loaded Sigma's file, displaying it. The associated picture looked exactly like Joy, but with dark green skin and purple hair. "She may have had her color changed since this record was last updated, but yes. She looks like me, and I wouldn't put it beneath her to try and impersonate me."

Anger was deliberately shivering as an expression. "That, I think would be a disaster, if you were impersonated and replaced."

"Indeed."

"Why not use that new institution you enacted for the beefed up security? That, ah... private army. I'm sure they could handle a rogue Worker, if she's responsible for the communications failure."

"Anger, we discussed this: It's a peacekeeping force."

Anger rolled his eyes slightly. "Whatever label, you can send them to keep the peace in the Thought Foundry."

Dim Joy walked patiently in the direction of the main control panel, her hands behind her back. "No. Their job is to keep Headquarters secure. I'm not pulling them from their post for what could easily be equipment failure, or someone falling asleep at their desk. I'm certain we'll regain contact very soon."

"Joy... I don't get it. I really don't."

"Hm?" She turned, and saw he was standing in place, looking off. "Don't get what?"

"Joy, you... well, you're not assertive anymore. I think that your set has shrunken."

One of Dim Joy's eyes narrowed, "Anger, you're really using some inappropriate-"

"No. Balls. You have none." He was looking her in the eye now. "You've lost your balls."

"I never had them, Anger. I'm a female."

Anger just threw his hands in the air, stomping his feet as he paced, raising his voice. "I'll put it more frankly: Not long ago you feared nobody. But now... Now you're an eel."

"Yikes, way to put me on the spot-"

"You used to shove your worldview down or throats without any shame or self-awareness, and we've profited from it." He was clenching his fists, raising them near his face. "Now it feels like you need consensus just to walk and chew gum."

Sadness, Fear and Disgust were now looking in their direction from near the control panel.

Dim Joy was frowning. "If you disagree with any of my decisions, Anger, I'm open to discussion-"

Anger raised an index finger. "I'm going to cut you off again, because apparently I can do that now." He had a forced grin and was nodding. Then he started pacing again, pacing feverishly. The top of his scalp was beginning to smolder. "I think... I think... I think-"

"What do you think, Anger?" Dim Joy was attentive, but otherwise indifferent. "Do try to give words to your feeling."

He wheeled from pacing to face her. His cap exploded in a gout of flame.

"I THINK YOU NEED TO TAKE A DAY OFF!"

* * *

When Riley awoke early in the morning, she'd shot out of bed and took a shower while her parents were still half-asleep. After seeing to her dental hygiene and what to wear for the day, she went back into her room and searched all over her desk. A fistful of pencils and pens, several sharpeners, and at least three mostly blank notebooks. A light ache in the top area of her face made her aware that she was locked in a frown. Opening her wallet revealed a couple of $10s, as well as a handful of singles. It would be enough for what she was planning.

There was a knock on her bedroom door. "Riley," the voice was her father's. "Mom is making breakfast downstairs." His tone was propositional.

It occurred to her that they may not be aware she woke up well before they did. "I'll be right down!" She answered, and then heard her dad's footsteps move away from her door.

She leaned down, so that her face was visible in the small mirror over the rear of her desk. She did a little finger-adjusting of her shoulder-length hair.

" _Really, you're adjusting your hair?" Dim Joy was remarking from a position at the control panel off from the center. Anger had taken the reigns._

" _It's always bothered me, knowing exactly how it should look, but not being able to have it that way because of convenience. Well, not today. Today is gonna be my day."_

" _Your day, not Riley's." Dim Joy sniped._

" _We are Riley. What we want is what she wants. What a part of her wants is what a part of her wants. It's simple logic, Joy."_

Satisfied with her hair, Riley headed downstairs.

* * *

Gunfire, the roar of massive hydraulics, an explosion on a far-off, upper plate. These sounds coincided with the blinking and rotation of red alarm lights scattered about the Thought Foundry. Mind Workers ran and turned and shouted in a disorderly panic.

Joy was walking calmly through the chaos, unarmed and with her hands clasped behind her back. She came to a broad stairway that went up. It was blocked by an enormous gate. Thick metal bars, mounted on welded steel side walls which rendered the floor above inaccessible.

"Ivory," she called.

The massive white and gold bug stepped ahead of her. It gripped the steel barred gate in its jaws and braced its six legs. A few seconds of stillness, then the metal structuring began to groan. One of the hinges gave, releasing a deafening ring from the snapping of metal under pressure.

Ivory moved the semi-freed gate around, maintaining his grip as he tore it out of its housing at different angles, weakening the other points of contact. It wasn't long before he readily snapped it off its last remaining hinge and tossed it aside. It landed on the metal flooring aside with a light tremor.

"Well done." Joy said as she advanced up the steps. As she walked up, she raised a hand held radio to her mouth. "All units, report."

"This is Gamma. The explosive has been detonated successfully. Their communications antennae has been neutralized, over.

"Iota reporting. As anticipated, all elevators and lifts have gone into emergency lockdown. The Foreman has barricaded himself in the control room, over."

Joy held the talk button, "Iota. Have you any visual of security forces?" Iota was inside the APC several floors down. He'd tapped into the security surveillance network, and could see most of the Foundry.

"The next monorail comes in ten minutes, thirty seconds from now. If Headquarters is sending troops, they'll be on that train, over."

"Lambda, did you get that?" They were all on the same frequency.

"I did." She replied. "You're dangerously close to the tram docking station, over."

"I'm also close to the control room," she said as she passed a sign at the top of the stairway. _B-050_ was the directory labeling. "I want everybody to meet me here ASAP. We're taking the control room, and we're taking it now."

"Right then."

"Roger that."

"Yes Ma'am."

They all replied.

" _I will be unable to accompany you to the control room. My size does not permit entry to such a small space."_

In the ongoing commotion, the noise of the alarm horns, Joy again clasped her hands behind her back, cradling her radio in the hand which was not gripping the other's wrist. She stopped walking, turned and looked up at Ivory Tower's truck-sized head. "Can you find your way to the tram station?" She was aware that he was blind. His antennae often made the lightest of brushes on her as they walked, so that it could tell where she was taking them.

" _I can hear its screeching from here. It is on this floor."_

She nodded. "There's a monorail coming in. Delay it."

It immediately set out on this task, but then stopped a moment. _"In what manner..."_ It searched for what words to use as its antennae flailed about, touching everything within reach as its body remained still. _"How would you like it done?"_

Joy was in the sort of mood which she'd never been in before. She was seething; overcome with an immense frustration which she kept hidden under a guise of calm, control and objectivity. She just shrugged at this question. "Eat them, wreck their train, wreck their rails- be creative, Ivory. As long as they are made aware..."

" _Aware of what?"_

She smiled, without humor but still with joy. "This is my Foundry now, and they are not welcome."

Ivory was nodding slowly. " _Understood. I shall protect your Foundry from intrusion."_

She nodded, "go forward Ivory Tower, and carry out my will."

It headed toward the rock wall, in the direction of a steel-framed tunnel which led to the monorail station.

The half she was at of the floor she was on was lacking in machinery or furnaces. It was an open area with flat, wheel-friendly steel flooring. There were also spaces with tables and chairs. It was arranged like a lobby.

Joy turned, and saw the Irregulars. Lambda, Iota and Gamma. They had already reached her. Omega was missing; he hadn't been seen since he threw Joy back down the shaft.

"That true, what you said to the huge bug?" Gamma's eyes were attentive on Joy as they lined up in front of her. "Are we really taking this place over..." A grin slowly appeared, "for keeps?"

"Have you considered the administrative costs of conquering territory?" Iota was pinching his forehead, his spectacled eyes shut in thought.

Lambda slapped her hands on Gamma and Iota's shoulders. "It isn't our job to ask questions. Now, might I ask what our new orders are?"

Joy turned, and walked off sideways. Her hands returned to a clasp behind her back. "You may."

The three Irregulars followed, closely behind and matching her slow, patient pace. "What are our orders?"

She pointed up, to the control room suspended above. It reached out from a filled in area of the next floor above. "I assume you brought your hookshots, yes?"

The three of them brandished clunky, chain-driven guns whose grappling hooks protruded out from their barrels. "Straight out of the cool part of Imagination-land," Gamma quipped.

* * *

"Really, Anger. I think you're overreacting. It, ah... it can't be healthy if you're driving for too long."

"No, Joy. I respectfully disagree." Anger was at the center spot of the control console, gripping his favorite pair of levers. His voice was low, tense, with a forced calm. "It's you driving for too long that can't be healthy.

Sadness, Disgust and Fear were affixed at this scene. Normally, any fit which Anger threw was immediately cut off by some new development or his own low stamina. But now, for the first time, he was being stubborn.

"Okay," Dim Joy narrated, looking up at the screen. "So now we're eating breakfast. Table manners are really something-"

"I can handle eating eggs and toast, Joy. It's not complicated."

She raised her hands backing off. "Okay, okay..."

"Riley, is something on your mind? You haven't said a thing since coming downstairs."

Her head raised from looking down at her plate, and she saw that her parents were staring at her. Riley's mother looked slightly worried, her father was simply curious. She swallowed what was in her mouth. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answered as she turned back to her plate of eggs and toast, using the fork to flick a piece into her mouth with a passive-aggressive impatience. "There's something I have to do today. I want to stay focused."

"Alright." Riley's mother shrugged, going back to her own breakfast and deciding not to be pushy.

Riley's father, to her left, shifted to a more relaxed curiosity. He lowered a newspaper he was reading. "What would you be doing on a Saturday?"

"I'm getting together with my friends, and we're going to do our Social Studies essay."

"When is it due?"

"Next Wednesday."

"Oh," her mother was looking up again. "You have plenty of time, then. I mean..." She was looking off, and then looked back, raising her eyebrows slightly. "There's no cause to be all tense, right?"

She just shrugged at this, then went back to eating.

Breakfast continued like this for another full minute. Then it was Riley who spoke. "Hey, Dad, I've wanted to ask something."

"Yeah, shoot." He said half-indifferently, focused on what he was reading.

"What kind of work do you do?"

"Mm?" Surprised at this question, he lowered his paper again and looked directly at her.

Inside of Riley's Father's mind, his five emotions, headed by his Anger, were seated at a broad control deck. Their surroundings were earthen-colored, and resembled the bridge of a submarine.

"We have a situation, gentlemen." His Anger said to the other four. "Riley is curious about our work, and we have a chance to talk about it."

"We can give it to her straight, or try to filter it, sir." His Fear reported. "What's the call?"

His Anger was musing, quizzically rubbing his chin. "How old is she again..?"

"Twelve, sir."

Anger nodded. "Give her the Micky Mouse analogy."

The other four emotions got to work. "Understood. Loading Micky Mouse analogy now." A framework was wheeled into the control room from the leftward side. It contained an array of long, cylinder-shaped light bulbs. This mobile frame was connected to the control console by high-voltage cables.

"Idea loaded, and... execute!" The bulbs on the frame lit, signifying the go-ahead.

"I work for a tech start up company." Riley's Father answered.

"What do you do there?"

"Well..." He turned his fork around in the air, making it seem like he was looking for the words. "You know how Mickey mouse is really super popular, and everybody knows who he is?" He was leaning in now, attentive.

She nodded, "yeah, of course. I've never had to explain who he is to anybody; they already know."

"At a start up company," he continued, "we try all sorts of different things, and see if just one of them will be like Mickey Mouse; something that will work and that people would want, and which will grow until everybody knows what it is."

"You... draw cartoon characters?"

"Well no," he clarified. "It's a different field, but the principle is the same."

Riley crooked her head a bit. "Are you suggesting that when Disney thought of Mickey Mouse, he was throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick?"

He raised his finger, about to say something. But then he paused. A few more seconds, and he lowered it, relaxed, and shrugged. "Maybe he was, you never know. What's important, Riley, is the result."

Riley's mother observed this conversation with a slight bewilderment.

Inside Riley's Mother's mind, her emotions were manning a U-shaped conference table.

"This is odd." Her Sadness announced from the head of the table. "Riley has diverted from her normal pattern."

"She's usually uninterested when the Husband talks about work." Said her Fear.

"He thought of a more interesting way to explain it than usual," her Joy argued.

"But that doesn't explain why it was Riley who brought it up," said her Anger. "Something is definitely fishy."

"Alright, alright." her Sadness said in a patronizing tone, patting her hands down. "We'll get a word in edgewise, and steer the conversation. Load up a topic."

Her Disgust hit a combination of keys, then enter, and a memory orb was loaded and projected on screen.

She waited for her moment, and then interjected, "I've heard that there's-"

"I have to go. Thanks for making breakfast, mom." Riley got up on her feet, slinging her backpack over one shoulder. She was out the door before anybody could debate. It was barely light outside, and the streetlamps were still lit.

Riley's father was not far behind. "It's about time I headed out too. Burning the Saturday oil." He pecked his wife on the cheek. "I'll see you tonight." He headed out the door only ten seconds after Riley did.

She was left alone at the table. Slightly bewildered, in that both her husband and daughter did the exact same thing, and it didn't look like they planned to or coalesced.

Riley's mother took a deep sigh before she finished eating. She muttered something, which she would only ever say in private. "Exactly like him, fate has decided..." she played with her food with her fork, slowly, patiently meditating with drowsy eyes. "Maybe we could have second kid..."

* * *

The Foreman of the Thought Foundry was pacing feverishly. The place was in chaos, and the light amount of security forces stationed at the Foundry had not reported back. He turned to his radio operator. "What's the word from Headquarters?"

"I'm trying to reestablish contact, but still nothing. I think they knocked out our aerial."

"It's fine, everybody." He said to the nervous-looking Workers of the control room who'd remained at their posts. "They'll realize something's wrong, and send help. We just need to hold out a bit longer."

There was a tap on glass from outside. He turned, and saw the three irregulars suspended on cable harnesses outside the control room window panes. One of them leveled a rifle. The Foreman ducked for cover as the red beam of heat energy melted through the glass and shot across the room. The beam went well over the consoles and other equipment as it moved about.

A wide hole was melted through the window, and the Irregulars hopped inside one by one. "Everybody please remain calm." The female Irregular announced as the other two moved through the room, their rifles clearly visible in a ready to shoot posture. "Who is in charge, here?"

The Foreman stood up straight, slowly, with his hands raised nervously.

She walked up to his elevated spot, her rifle cradled relaxedly in her hands. "Tell these people... That everything's going to be fine, and as long as they behave they won't get hurt..." She freed up a hand and rolled it in the air in indication, looking at the Foreman intently. Getting the signal, he immediately repeated what she told him.

"..Stay put and don't do anything stupid, and all will be golden. That is all, thank you for your cooperation."

"Who operates the elevators?" The skinny Irregular with spectacles asked this out loud. When one of the terminal operators raised a hand, he walked over to him. "Undo the lockdown on the elevator leading here, if you would."

The operator complied, and a minute later of silence, while the control room people were held up by the three people with guns, the elevator came up. Joy was on the elevator. She entered the control room, scanning her surroundings.

"The control room is secured, Sir." Lambda reported

Joy was nodding slowly at this. "Every Worker except the Foreman is to wait in the lobby. Iota, see to this."

"Let's go, people!" Iota said as they rose from their seats and filed toward the elevator. Iota and a handful more were the first to go down.

Joy headed up to the elevated spot where Lambda, Gamma and the Foreman were.

The Foreman saw her, and scowled. "Sigma. I should have known it was you behind this. Always lying and manipulating to get up the ladder."

"You have me mistaken for someone else. I'm Joy."

"Liar. You're Sigma. Joy would never pull this kind of thing. Don't you realize you're disrupting an important operation? Don't you care about Riley's mental health?"

Joy froze at this. She gripped a handrail next to the brief flight of stairs she'd just climbed without altering her straight posture. She could not find the words to say to that. Suddenly she wanted to curl up, sink into the ground and wait for everything to go away before coming out again.

The Foreman continued: "You're not doing anything worth anything with this. You're out for yourself-"

Gamma hit the Foreman in the back with the butt of his rifle. The blow reduced the Foreman to his knees. "Shut your freaking mouth!" He grabbed the Foreman's hair and raised his face to look up at Joy. Gamma was looking up at her as well, expectantly. "Joy, what do you want done with this disrespectful prick?"

Joy's unnoticed breathing pattern evened out again, and she let her hand slide off the handrail. Still standing in place, the pupils of her eyes widened, relaxed. "That's enough, Gamma. He can't do anything."

Gamma let go of the Foreman's hair, and stood straight again.

"I want you to head down to the lobby. Check up with Iota, then with Ivory Tower at the tram station. Report back to me."

"Mmhm, you got it." Gamma saluted loosely, and then walked naturally down the brief flight of steps of the elevation, then toward the elevator.

Once he was gone, Joy turned to Lambda. "Lambda, I'm a little nervous. I had no idea that Gamma was... like that."

Lambda moved one eyeball out from watching the Foreman climb back on his feet. "Oh, yes. He's a class A wise guy, that one. And I think he's taken a liking to you."

Joy was frowning. "He's not... volatile, is he?"

She shrugged. "Treat him right and let him play cards on Saturdays, and he'll break anybody's legs for you."

"He's a violent thug, far as I'm concerned." This remark came from the Foreman, who was back on his feet.

"Foreman!" Joy greeted as though he'd just entered the room. "I need to question you: Do you have a direct line to Headquarters in here?"

He frowned at this question, his lips remaining tight.

"We can call Gamma back up here, if you'd like," said Lambda to the Foreman.

The Foreman looked at her now, becoming more visibly nervous.

"Lambda no." Joy retorted. "I don't think threatening someone is an effective motivator. I'd rather get him to warm up to us."

Joy and Lambda had made eye contact, and they exchanged an invisible nod before turning back to the Foreman.

Lambda raised a hand at her, "please don't concern yourself, Joy. He'll give you what you want. I just have to snip off a few fingers." She was leaning in and grinning, having brandished a pair of hedge trimmers.

Joy looked at the Foreman, haplessly trying to smile and shrug. "Look buddy, I like you. I think you're fine. But I can't stop my people once they've tasted blood."

Lambda grabbed his wrist and wrestled him down onto a table, pinning his hand on the console table. "We'll start with the thumbs."

He shifted his wrestled down face to look at Joy. "You, help me, please."

Joy just shrugged at this. "If you'd just answer my questions- oh, and address me by my proper name, she wouldn't have to hurt you."

His mouth shut, and be became tight-lipped again.

"You certain?" She had a genuinely sad look. "This is not a joyful state of affairs."

"You... you can't do this, you maniac!" he suddenly burst out in defiance.

"This little piggy went to the market!" Lambda closed the trimmers around his thumb.

"Okay!" he squealed before the trimmers applied the pressure that would separate his thumb. "I give! I give up, Joy. Ask whatever you want."

Lambda released him, and Joy clasped her hands behind her back. "Does this office have a direct video line to headquarters?"

"Yes," he said.

"Splendid! Once we've fixed the aerial, I'd like to make a call."

"Go on, get out of here." Lambda said to the Foreman, who promptly headed for the elevator.

Joy crashed in one of the desk chairs on the elevation, loosening and relaxing. "I suppose we ended up reverting to Plan A, didn't we?"

Lambda went over to a coffee machine with a half-full carafe, situated on a table in the corner spot of the elevation. "I do enjoy a good 'Good Cop Bad Cop' routine. You did good."

"Thanks."

"I can't believe Omega turned on you. He always was hard to read, that one."

"Should I be worried about Gamma as well?"

"Nah," Lambda had two prepared cups of coffee and situated herself on a desk chair across from Joy. "Gamma's not hard to read; you know what he'll do. Omega, though..."

"A man of few words, yes?"

"I couldn't exactly have any talks with him." She'd finished one of the cups of coffee already, and was slurping from the second. "Now, what's your plan for the Foundry? All that talk about it being yours. Do you plan on running it?"

"I plan on calling Headquarters, getting an update and letting them know I'm coming back. As long as I'm away, Riley can only feel Anger, Disgust, Fear or Sadness."

"No running the Foundry, then."

"I've caused enough of a disruption. This place has enough problems without me raising hell in my sojourn away from here."

"Right," Lambda said sarcastically. "Because this place was just an exemplar of organization and productivity, before you came along and ruined the master plan."

Joy looked at her. "I'm not going to absolve myself of responsibility."

"That's great, but it means you can't absolve other people of responsibility either. Otherwise you're not being fair, are you?"

She frowned, "I..."

"Take it from somebody who's been stationed here a few months: This place is a clown show. It was a clown show before the shortage, and it was a clown show before you showed up here. Riley's Thought Foundry is a joke, full of inefficient bureaucracy and halfhearted disinterest. They built it inside a mountain, just so the sight of its gray and dispassionate machinery wouldn't displease the view from Headquarters; what does that tell you?"

"Is it... because Riley is a girl?"

Lambda shook her head. "You might be overly self-conscious because she's a girl, but no. it's because she's young, and her brain is going to make a million sets of a million mistakes each..." Lambda was looking at Joy intently. "Before finding something that works."

* * *

Riley Anderson awaited her friends at their designated meeting place: The corner picnic table, in an unused rec room of their hockey rink. The place was closed that day, but they all had keys to the back door. When Jordan and Kaede entered the rec room, she awaited them with a small grin on her face, mirroring that of Anger at the console.

"And that's why I think The Frozen Heart is filled with neo National Socialist subtext. Find the right angle, and the lid slides off like a slippery salmon." Kaede was speaking to Jordan as they walked through the door.

"Uh huh, fascinating." he replied halfheartedly as he shut the door behind them. "Riley." He greeted. "Are we skating today, or what?"

She shook her head, "guess again." She indicated a large, vacant metal bird cage. Inside of the cage was the cardboard box of a large pizza.

"You got pizza..." Jordan was staring at it. "And I don't smell a hint of broccoli."

"Mm hm," Riley nodded. "I know some people, who know some people, who owned a dog that once belonged to some people. And those people set me up."

"Why is it inside the bird cage?"

Riley had a key, its ring hanging through her index finger. She closed her hand around it and slipped it in her pocket. "Nobody gets a bite, until..." She indicated three arrayed notebooks on the picnic table.

"No..." His face drooped. "No, no no no- you're gonna make us work!"

"We have to do it, you guys." Riley took a seat at the table. "Do join me."

"I..." Jordan was scratching his curly hair. "I haven't had a pizza without broccoli in years. You're an exploiter!" He was shaking a pointed finger at Riley.

"I'll unlock the cage when all three of us are finished. Do have a seat."

"It, it-it-it-" He walked briskly up to the locked cage. "It's gonna get cold!"

"Then we'd best hurry."

They both joined Riley across from her on the picnic table. Kaede had a quiet smile on her face.

Jordan opened his notebook. "We're going to be out of pencils before this is over."

Riley laid a fistful of them on the table between the three.

"You... you just thought of everything." He grumbled.

"You'll thank me." She had a smirk as her face was directed down into her notebook.


End file.
